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It's just a cost of living thing. One calculator says, > A salary of $185,000 in Boise, Idaho should increase to $450,797 in San Jose, California https://www.
by Domenic_S 8y ago
It's just a cost of living thing. One calculator says,
> A salary of $185,000 in Boise, Idaho should increase to $450,797 in San Jose, California
https://www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/boise-id/san-jose-ca/185000 https://www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/boise-id/san-jose-...
Total comp in the $200-300k range is common for seniors at tech companies in SV. But people tend to not understand exactly what that amount of money means here because it seems like so much money. It doesn't mean people in, say, Boise are underpaid or whatever, just that everything is way, way more expensive in the Bay Area.
- bradleyjg 8y agoNot everything. Housing and maybe some personal services. Who is better able to afford to put his kids through college, go skiing every year in the Swiss Alps, buy a Ferrari, or retire in luxury in Florida--a guy who spent his career making $185,000 in Boise or making $450,000 in San Jose? More money is still more money, the cost of housing notwithstanding.
- Domenic_S 8y agoAt a similar lifestyle level, they’re probably close. Most everything is indeed more expensive. Electricity, for example is nearly twice as expensive. I just looked up gas and Costco vs Costco is $.80/gal more. Insurance is more. Property tax rates are about the same but since the value of properties is so much higher you pay a lot more in real dollars. And since the basics are more expensive, everyone’s rates go up because they have to buy the basics too.
- my_usernam3 8y agoI don't disagree that money is still money, as I do like my high bay area salary. It makes traveling, and my universally set priced items feel like pennies on the dollar. However, I feel like you're are underestimating "some personal services". I don't have the time cook all my meals, I need to commute to get affordable housing, and I don't plan on just hanging out in the park everyday. So alas I find myself paying: $15 for a simple saled $11 roundtrip commute on caltrain $100 for nosebleed seats to a band that was barely even considered famous during their heyday These things really add up quick, and if you're not constantly careful about budgeting, you'll find yourself with less money than your counterpart in Boise.
- rb666 8y agoOk, you just spent $600 of your "high bay salary". How exactly are you planning to get down to $185k? Or you know, something more normal like $70k. Americans and their ridiculous concept of what middle-class is, hilarious. You're rich, own it.
- seesaw 8y agoIt costs about $3.5k/month to rent a two bed in the Bay Area, $1.2k/month per kid for the day care. Add in $1.2k for grocery, utlities, insurance, gas, car maintenance ..etc, and you are looking at around $7k a month with two kids. It would be closer to $9k with entertainment/vacation/car payments. You are right that someone with 450k gross should be able to comfortably handle this. It is different story for the majority that make 250k or less.
- ryandrake 8y agoDo you or dmoy know of any publicly viewable data that supports such high comp packages being “normal” for average senior developers? Not anecdotes from highly paid HN readers. There are no doubt top people at outlier companies making that much but if you look at places like salary.com and glassdoor.com those figures are not average or median. Think of average senior engineer Bob with a 10 year career, now working at mediocre tech company Xyz in Sunnyvale. There’s no way on Earth he’s making $300k. Hot shot ML expert Alice working at Facebook? Sure! How many more Bobs are there than Alices? 10x? 20x?
- dmoy 8y agolevels.fyi Median(?avg?) senior comp at Google is apparently 350k, 370k at Facebook. That is reasonable for large top tech company, which was the original statement.
- ryandrake 8y agoThe original claim was about a "range" of $350K to $500K, implying that $350K was the low end, not average or median. Which sounds highly doubtful, even at top tech companies, and totally unheard of at most average tech companies.
- dmoy 8y agoOk sure, one level above senior, average is 480k+. That's still not that high level. Especially since people will routinely make senior with like 6-8 years of experience.