5 ms·

I don't understand why this is news, or on the front page here. Google pays highly skilled, highly technical people a lot of money. End of story.

flixic 7y ago
This might be news to people not familiar with high tech job salaries, likely the Dice audience. So as general news it’s quite valid. On HN I doubt anyone is surprised by this.
- discordance 7y ago
  What is the dice audience? - tried googling to no avail
  - gpvos 7y ago
    The audience of the website (dice.com) that the article was posted on.
  - flixic 7y ago
    Seems to be hiring focused blog / jobs board.
  - vadym909 7y ago
    Dice is one of the oldest tech focused job boards. 99% of the jobs posted there are for tech contractors (business analysts, it admin, software developers) posted by staffing agencies or Indian outsourcers like Tata who need to hire contractors. Pay for these jobs are between $25-$100 hr.
- rco8786 7y ago
  But it’s here. On the front page of HN.
Brakenshire 7y ago
It's unusual in the context of Britain, I’d say, usually there's quite a well defined pay scale, with grades of worker, skilled worker, management, senior management, etc. It's all very class based. The exception is for self-employed contractors, which can be higher. But in general the notion of non-management salaried workers getting paid £300k upwards would be very surprising for a lot of people.
- dmix 7y ago
  Experts at the top of their field in an advanced industry getting paid $300k would be surprising in the UK?
  - oblio 7y ago
    Yes. Outside of the US, salaries for non-managers rarely break $100k. Switzerland is probably an exception, but that's just because the average salary in Switzerland is really high, as are living costs.
  - repolfx 7y ago
    He said £300,000 not $300,000. That'd be about $364,000. I think you'll find such salaries for individual contributors are surprising everywhere except the Bay Area. Britain isn't special in this regard - this sort of story is merely highlighting the fact that wages in the UK are catching up to the (extremely high) levels found in Mountain View.
- geebee 7y ago
  Why do you think this is? I fully invite speculation. It's... interesting. If paying tech professionals more is the way to win, then it's surprising the market doesn't eventually move in this direction. I can think of a few possibilities. One is that tech in the UK is dissimilar to Silicon Valley. Perhaps tech in UK industry is much more of a supporting role, valuable and important to do well, but not a differentiator that separates market winners from losers (unlike Silicon Valley, where you have existential wars going on between massive multi billion dollar corporations where hiring engineers can determine the winner who takes all). I'm kind of begging the question here, though (it isn't cause it isn't). Another possibility is flat out collusion. This clearly happened in Silicon Valley, with the no poach wage collusion. Once that cartel broke up (partly due to external pressures from participants who refused to join the cartel, and partly from a large anti-trust action), tech salaries did skyrocket. Pure, flat out cultural resistance can also play a big role (going back to my first point). Maybe class-based behavior patterns are just too ingrained. I think market oriented people often underestimate just how stubborn deeply ingrained structural behavior patterns can be. There's something to the claim that there are people who would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven, so to speak, and I suppose there could be a class of people who would rather ensure that the UK never develop a competitive tech industry than drop a rung in the job hierarchy (or even just share a spot on the perch). In this sense, tech in there UK can develop only as far as possible within the boundaries of certain tech workers never being paid more a designated set of other classes of workers.

flixic 7y ago

This might be news to people not familiar with high tech job salaries, likely the Dice audience. So as general news it’s quite valid. On HN I doubt anyone is surprised by this.

discordance 7y ago
What is the dice audience? - tried googling to no avail
- gpvos 7y ago
  The audience of the website (dice.com) that the article was posted on.
- flixic 7y ago
  Seems to be hiring focused blog / jobs board.
- vadym909 7y ago
  Dice is one of the oldest tech focused job boards. 99% of the jobs posted there are for tech contractors (business analysts, it admin, software developers) posted by staffing agencies or Indian outsourcers like Tata who need to hire contractors. Pay for these jobs are between $25-$100 hr.
rco8786 7y ago
But it’s here. On the front page of HN.

Brakenshire 7y ago

It's unusual in the context of Britain, I’d say, usually there's quite a well defined pay scale, with grades of worker, skilled worker, management, senior management, etc. It's all very class based. The exception is for self-employed contractors, which can be higher. But in general the notion of non-management salaried workers getting paid £300k upwards would be very surprising for a lot of people.

dmix 7y ago
Experts at the top of their field in an advanced industry getting paid $300k would be surprising in the UK?
- oblio 7y ago
  Yes. Outside of the US, salaries for non-managers rarely break $100k. Switzerland is probably an exception, but that's just because the average salary in Switzerland is really high, as are living costs.
- repolfx 7y ago
  He said £300,000 not $300,000. That'd be about $364,000. I think you'll find such salaries for individual contributors are surprising everywhere except the Bay Area. Britain isn't special in this regard - this sort of story is merely highlighting the fact that wages in the UK are catching up to the (extremely high) levels found in Mountain View.
geebee 7y ago
Why do you think this is? I fully invite speculation. It's... interesting. If paying tech professionals more is the way to win, then it's surprising the market doesn't eventually move in this direction. I can think of a few possibilities. One is that tech in the UK is dissimilar to Silicon Valley. Perhaps tech in UK industry is much more of a supporting role, valuable and important to do well, but not a differentiator that separates market winners from losers (unlike Silicon Valley, where you have existential wars going on between massive multi billion dollar corporations where hiring engineers can determine the winner who takes all). I'm kind of begging the question here, though (it isn't cause it isn't). Another possibility is flat out collusion. This clearly happened in Silicon Valley, with the no poach wage collusion. Once that cartel broke up (partly due to external pressures from participants who refused to join the cartel, and partly from a large anti-trust action), tech salaries did skyrocket. Pure, flat out cultural resistance can also play a big role (going back to my first point). Maybe class-based behavior patterns are just too ingrained. I think market oriented people often underestimate just how stubborn deeply ingrained structural behavior patterns can be. There's something to the claim that there are people who would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven, so to speak, and I suppose there could be a class of people who would rather ensure that the UK never develop a competitive tech industry than drop a rung in the job hierarchy (or even just share a spot on the perch). In this sense, tech in there UK can develop only as far as possible within the boundaries of certain tech workers never being paid more a designated set of other classes of workers.