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Tricky to say, as software engineering is a somewhat unique profession. Going by what happens in other industries, you'd reasonably expect a flattening of wage
by scarmig 8y ago
Tricky to say, as software engineering is a somewhat unique profession.
Going by what happens in other industries, you'd reasonably expect a flattening of wages (both inter and intra firm) and an increase in the average wage. You'd also expect entry into the field to become harder, and exit from the field (both voluntary and involuntary) to become rarer. Fewer workers would be employed overall, though per capita productivity would increase; the overall effect would probably mean more money allocated to labor, less to capital holders, and higher costs for consumers. Work rules would increase, e.g. no one allowed to be on call for more than X hours a year, or a SWE not being allowed/required to take on job responsibilities outside the scope of the initial job offer except as facilitated by formal processes.
Many of these effects will disproportionately benefit women and racial minorities (this is a rare case where "racial minorities" includes Asians of various sorts, as they're paid less than white people in the field, though that's in large part to the power employers have over visa holders).
- mattdeboard 8y agoHopefully you circle back to your comments and see this some day. This was a great answer I've read several times as I consider organized labor in software development regularly. Thanks for giving me targets for research.