I was going to comment on $15k being pretty far off, but apparently for a mediocre programmer in Brazil it's not that uncommon. Decent ones, though, can get far

I was going to comment on $15k being pretty far off, but apparently for a mediocre programmer in Brazil it's not that uncommon. Decent ones, though, can get far better salaries from what I've found. I've always thought of starting an outsourcing agency hiring programmers from underpaid countries, but the reality is that the good ones aren't as underpaid as you'd think, and the whole process is incredibly complicated, even if you have substantial ties+citizenship+connections in both the US and the country you're outsourcing to. Also, if he gets a 10% raise every year, he'll be making 73x as much (21x as much with 3% inflation) at the end of a 45 year career. If he starts out at $15k, he'll end up at $1.1MM/year, $315k in 2019 dollars assuming a hefty 3% inflation. Not half bad for someone who doesn't care about doing his work well and can't google a sorting algorithm!