My hypothesis for why tech has high salaries is stock compensation and fast growth. For example, Google stock is nearly 2x what it was 3-4 years ago. If you hav

My hypothesis for why tech has high salaries is stock compensation and fast growth. For example, Google stock is nearly 2x what it was 3-4 years ago. If you have a four year grant and had about half your comp in stock, then 2xing the stock means you're making 50% more now, assuming you didn't get any promotions or anything. If you're trying to hire folks away from these situations, your pre-stock-growth starting offer has to compete with their post-stock-growth comp, so starting offers have pressure to grow over time.