6 ms·
>average tech worker earns $275k a year I need to move to bay area this year. thats my sole mission this year.
by dominotw 7y ago
>average tech worker earns $275k a year
I need to move to bay area this year. thats my sole mission this year.
- alexbanks 7y agoI'm curious where this poster got that figure. I haven't found anything like it, in fact a pretty consistent 145k average salary. I would also be wary of average vs. median, as there's some real crazy outliers out there.
- fahadkhan 7y agoPedantic note. You probably mean mean (or mode) vs median. They are all different types of averages (amongst others).
- rootusrootus 7y agoI'm guessing OP did in fact mean median, since the point is that outliers at the top can really skew the mean. Median gives a more realistic idea of what people are typically earning.
- skookum 7y agoPresumably from stories like this one earlier this week: https://www.geekwire.com/2020/seattle-tech-workers-earn-279k-year-average-double-wages-every-sector/ https://www.geekwire.com/2020/seattle-tech-workers-earn-279k...
- Apocryphon 7y agoAmazon/Microsoft TC, probably. Base salary is a different story.
- skookum 7y agoI don't know why there is always this nitpick. I just take it for granted that when someone talks about tech "salaries" they mean "total comp". Virtually everyone in my peer group makes more than half of their total comp from non-salary compensation. Sure that portion varies somewhat due to market forces, but there seems little point in discussing base salaries.
- Apocryphon 7y agoThere's a huge difference from getting stock grants from FAANGM and getting options from startups, which may easily turn into funny money. The recent underwhelming tech IPOs from Uber, and perhaps worrying upcoming IPOs from AirBnB, indicate that even options from unicorns might be of debatable worth. It's just not money in the bank in the same way those from the tech giants are.
- skookum 7y agoDid you read the article you're responding to? It's historical data, which is as literal money in the bank as you can get. What's the point of saying "oh sure, but this is skewed by Amazon/Microsoft TC, base salaries are actually much lower" in this context?
- codegeek 7y agoBecause Cash is king. Everything else can be taken away or reduced or diluted or what not.
- skookum 7y agoThis is backward looking data. It's what people earned, not some pie-in-the-sky projection of future IPO windfalls.
- irrational 7y agoI have a sister-in-law that I recently learned is making $275k in a tech job in Seattle. She has no college degree or formal training. She has just learned things on the job over the years. I was frankly astonished. That is more than double what I make as a senior software engineer 3 hours away in Portland.
- r00fus 7y agoWhat job / company (or industry if you can't say)?
- irrational 7y agoSomething to do with cloud computing, but not for any of the FANG + Microsoft companies.
- NikolaeVarius 7y agoWell FAANG seems to be missing an A, and a certain company does cloud computing starting with an A
- irrational 7y agoWell the company she works for doesn't start with an A. But what is the A I'm missing? Oh, Apple. Nope, not Apple.
- brailsafe 7y agoAs a software dev just to the north in Vancouver, BC at 110k CAD: that's bananas money.
- __turbobrew__ 7y agoI am a software engineer in Vancouver as well, feels bad. My partner doesn't want to move so I am taking the pay cut. I have noticed that Vancouver dev salaries have been increasing the last few years, but no where close to +200K USD. My end goal is to move to the Okanagan and get a remote job where I could get similar pay to Vancouver with much lower living costs.
- galazzah 7y agohttps://www.levels.fyi/ https://www.levels.fyi/ has some pretty good figures. I also am fairly certain its total comp and not salary...
- ryandrake 7y agoLevels.fyi: outlier employees at outlier companies. Not even close to “average for normal software developer.”
- thebean11 7y agoOutlier employees is probably an exaggeration. Sure, they may be making above average at those companies but no way those Google/FB salaries are true outliers.
- bloblaw 7y agoGot it here: https://www.geekwire.com/2020/seattle-tech-workers-earn-279k-year-average-double-wages-every-sector/ https://www.geekwire.com/2020/seattle-tech-workers-earn-279k...
- alfiedotwtf 7y ago$145k for Bay Area salaries? I’m assuming this doesn’t include the wild bonuses and options I keep hearing about, because given how living expenses are, that seems like a negative ROI
- alexbanks 7y agoWell yes, because bonuses and options aren't guaranteed salary.
- cdubzzz 7y agoIf you only make the average, expect to have a 1hr+ commute to work (:
- throwaway713 7y agoData scientist here. “Average” tech comp (the study used the mean in this case) is so misleading as to be useless and was probably chosen to promote an agenda. The distribution of tech comp is extremely skewed by the top earners. Median would have been much more representative. (Although I will add that $275k is about the median at FANG companies). I think I remember reading that Americans, on average, have $700k saved up for retirement. When I dug further into the data, the median was many multiples less than that.
- woozyolliew 7y agoThat really seems like a high average, even for the Bay Area. I suspect median total comp is lower, even for FAANG. Also, the company in the article is in the Seattle area. Lastly, even at the extraordinary level of income of $275k, cost of living means that while you’ll be comfortable, you won’t feel especially kingly. I’d add Portland, Austin, Minneapolis, etc. to your consideration. Comp is 25% lower, but cost of living is even lower than that.
- jinushaun 7y agoTotal comp with stocks, not base salary. $275k base is an outlier.
- jb3689 7y agoGo remote for a bay area company. High pay without high rent
- Zanneth 7y agoCompanies don’t pay Bay Area salaries to remote workers.