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Facebook paying Dan Abramov only $130K (£100k)

11 points by andrewstuart 7y ago

PragmaticPulp 7y ago
$130K USD / £100k base, no mention of equity compensation. Seems a bit misleading to be open about base compensation but hide the bonus and RSU compensation. Why not quote the whole compensation number? That said, this follows my experience with European compensation practices. It's easy to hire great talent at average or below-average US equivalent compensation. I some times wonder if the push for more remote work in the US will open the floodgates for cheaper international labor. Once you're hiring people in different time zones, it's not that much more of a stretch to open a remote office in a cheaper European locale.
- cnst 7y ago
  False. His base salary is 0,00 USD and 100k GBP. Also, if we want to have adequate comparison between regions, there has to be some sort of a retirement-related benchmark for when a person can retire comfortably. For example, in the US, if you're required to pay 24k per year after-tax for health insurance alone, for a family of 4, from the point of retirement until you're eligible for medicare, then that's an extra expense that your savings should be capable of covering etc.
andrewstuart 7y ago
For anyone who doesn't know, Dan Abramov is one of the worlds leading experts on, and a core developer of, ReactJS. I think many ReactJS application developers around the world would be paid significantly more than this. It's strange - I had heard that the big Silicon Valley tech companies paid well, but maybe not. Anyone here on HN know what typical senior software engineer salary is at Facebook? Presuming Dan is one of the best paid ones then that must mean average is more like USD$100K which seems alot lower than I would have expected. I'm a recruiter - I could get Dan a job here in Melbourne for well more money than that which is weird because Australia doesn't pay at the top end.
- cnst 7y ago
  He's not based in the US, though, so, I don't see anything strange here. He's getting paid 100k£ base salary. That's a pretty huge salary in the UK — SWE salaries outside of the US major markets are much lower, and in Europe outside of Switzerland, they're even lower still; and even going by the conversion from GBP to USD alone, that's not that bad for most of the US outside of the major markets, either. Not to mention that the total comp is probably much higher as well.
  - andrewstuart 7y ago
    I thought these big Silicon Valley companies paid their highly public superstars big coin, regardless of where they live. It seems strange because you'd think they would pay him extremely well as a defensive strategy to keep the other SV giants from buying him away - they seem to be making that task rather easy.
    - cnst 7y ago
      Why? If he's happy at FB, and wants to get more k$, I'm sure he can arrange to get moved to the US and have his salary adjusted for the local market without any issue. Probably would mean 180k$ base or whatnot right away; plus lots of stock (no idea how much stock they give outside of US).
cnst 7y ago
The title of "only $130K (£100k)" is incorrect — it makes it seem like he's underpaid, because 130k USD in the US wouldn't be a competitive salary, whereas 100k GBP in England is quite a top buck. Also, not sure about the deal with only listing the base salary — in the US, his SV-based company would provide significant equity-based compensation for any of their engineering offices. In fact, FB is known to pay exactly the same at all of their US-based engineering offices, so, it's up to you whether living in SV or NYC is worth the extra cost, or whether you'd rather save it for an early retirement by going for a secondary market.

11 points by andrewstuart 7y ago

$130K USD / £100k base, no mention of equity compensation. Seems a bit misleading to be open about base compensation but hide the bonus and RSU compensation. Why not quote the whole compensation number? That said, this follows my experience with European compensation practices. It's easy to hire great talent at average or below-average US equivalent compensation. I some times wonder if the push for more remote work in the US will open the floodgates for cheaper international labor. Once you're hiring people in different time zones, it's not that much more of a stretch to open a remote office in a cheaper European locale.

cnst 7y ago
False. His base salary is 0,00 USD and 100k GBP. Also, if we want to have adequate comparison between regions, there has to be some sort of a retirement-related benchmark for when a person can retire comfortably. For example, in the US, if you're required to pay 24k per year after-tax for health insurance alone, for a family of 4, from the point of retirement until you're eligible for medicare, then that's an extra expense that your savings should be capable of covering etc.

andrewstuart 7y ago

For anyone who doesn't know, Dan Abramov is one of the worlds leading experts on, and a core developer of, ReactJS. I think many ReactJS application developers around the world would be paid significantly more than this. It's strange - I had heard that the big Silicon Valley tech companies paid well, but maybe not. Anyone here on HN know what typical senior software engineer salary is at Facebook? Presuming Dan is one of the best paid ones then that must mean average is more like USD$100K which seems alot lower than I would have expected. I'm a recruiter - I could get Dan a job here in Melbourne for well more money than that which is weird because Australia doesn't pay at the top end.

cnst 7y ago
He's not based in the US, though, so, I don't see anything strange here. He's getting paid 100k£ base salary. That's a pretty huge salary in the UK — SWE salaries outside of the US major markets are much lower, and in Europe outside of Switzerland, they're even lower still; and even going by the conversion from GBP to USD alone, that's not that bad for most of the US outside of the major markets, either. Not to mention that the total comp is probably much higher as well.
- andrewstuart 7y ago
  I thought these big Silicon Valley companies paid their highly public superstars big coin, regardless of where they live. It seems strange because you'd think they would pay him extremely well as a defensive strategy to keep the other SV giants from buying him away - they seem to be making that task rather easy.
  - cnst 7y ago
    Why? If he's happy at FB, and wants to get more k$, I'm sure he can arrange to get moved to the US and have his salary adjusted for the local market without any issue. Probably would mean 180k$ base or whatnot right away; plus lots of stock (no idea how much stock they give outside of US).

cnst 7y ago

The title of "only $130K (£100k)" is incorrect — it makes it seem like he's underpaid, because 130k USD in the US wouldn't be a competitive salary, whereas 100k GBP in England is quite a top buck. Also, not sure about the deal with only listing the base salary — in the US, his SV-based company would provide significant equity-based compensation for any of their engineering offices. In fact, FB is known to pay exactly the same at all of their US-based engineering offices, so, it's up to you whether living in SV or NYC is worth the extra cost, or whether you'd rather save it for an early retirement by going for a secondary market.