Here's my take: Looking at a programmer as a single type of profession is relatively useless - what matters is domain expertise. Example: If you are a decent C+

Here's my take: Looking at a programmer as a single type of profession is relatively useless - what matters is domain expertise. Example: If you are a decent C++ programmer without any specific domain expertise then your salary in the US is some amount of dollars. If you are a decent C++ programmer with intricate knowledge about how the Google Adwords auction works then your salary is probably at least two times higher. So if you compare programming salaries you really need to look beyond what they are programming in and start looking at what exactly they are programming.