Or another way of looking at it: maybe programmers are one of the few professions that aren’t being extremely underpaid when taking into account: inflation, mac

Or another way of looking at it: maybe programmers are one of the few professions that aren’t being extremely underpaid when taking into account: inflation, macro productivity and their scalable impact. Inflation: A $180k starting salary is equivalent to a $100k salary in 1990 dollars (The 1990s is probably the period when many of us 30 year olds started to hear about salaries and learn that a “six figure” salary was impressive. With $100k being the absolute bottom of a “six figure salary”. Productivity: for every hour worked (on average) the American worker is about 50% more productive - when compared to 1990. That takes $180k to $270k. [1] Scalable impact: increases in worker productivity are not distributed evenly. Let’s say a programmer is contributing double what the average worker is to the increase in productivity. This brings us above $300k and if we look at the real numbers maybe closer to $500k or more in value compared to that 1990 worker bringing in $100k of value. Thoughts? Poke holes in this but it adds up in my mind. Now this doesn’t prove companies won’t find a way to under pay programmers but it at least makes me feel less surprised salaries are so high. And sad that for other industries workers are getting the short end of the stick compared to how workers were compensated in the previous century. [1] https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_4501830 https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_4501830