Since 2008 the Federal Reserve has been keeping interests rates historically low. Low interest rates generally provide favorable conditions for stocks to go up,

Since 2008 the Federal Reserve has been keeping interests rates historically low. Low interest rates generally provide favorable conditions for stocks to go up, many companies will even buy back their own stock. Tech stocks have been growing faster than most sectors since 2008. You mention other companies offered same salary but could not compete on equity. I'm assuming many of the big tech companies buy back their stock and then draw from this pool to give to new employees, which other companies cannot do, giving them an advantage in getting the best talent. So are we in a programming bubble? In some sense yes, but it's being driven by low interest rates. I would guess that once rates normalize we will see a decrease in overall compensation from the tech giants as providing equity will become much more costly. However, moving forward the demand for strong information technologists will only increase.