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"it's not that weird that managers make more than employees" -- this is something that I really never understood, where it is expected that everyone under a man
by derekp7 8y ago
"it's not that weird that managers make more than employees" -- this is something that I really never understood, where it is expected that everyone under a manager makes less than them. At least considering what each role brings to the company's bottom line. After all, it really wouldn't be weird if a manager who makes, say 150 K a year brought in a consultant at $200 bucks an hour. Or purchased a machine that amortizes out to a couple million a year. Whereas if they have permanent employees that are developing product that is the lifeblood of the company, then the manager has to make more than any of their direct reports even if all they are doing is human resource type tasks.
- opportune 8y agoI think from a logical perspective, you're right, but not from a practical perspective. For better or for worse (especially at large companies) your title basically defines where you are on the totem pole, and if the average salary for your title is lower than someone else's average title, that de facto puts you lower in the hierarchy. That's why I think PMs need to make as much as the devs pretty much everywhere and why the managers need to make more than the managed pretty much everywhere - it's not because these jobs each produce exactly that much value, or even that the skills to do the job have that particular rate on the market, but that you need these relative salary relationships to create a stable working environment. Also, if engineering management paid less than engineering, I think you would mostly end up with non-technical engineering managers which doesn't sound like a very pleasant experience.