4 ms·

"Hundreds of thousands" at >$500k/yr? Care to share which orifice you pulled that number from?

opportune 6y ago
If I sum up the number of engineers at Google/FB/Apple/Amazon/Netflix I’m already there and if I include engineers from successful unicorns and decacorns, plus older big companies like Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, Intuit I’ve added way more people although probably not in the $500k range unless they are like directors. Then there are other groups like HFT/Prop trading/Hedge Funds but those are probably only a few thousand or maybe ten thousand. Sorry, I meant these companies have experienced (10-20 years) engineers at $500k where younger employees could expect to rise up to that level, not that every employee at these companies are making $500k.
- eeZah7Ux 6y ago
  > If I sum up the number of engineers at Google/FB/Apple/Amazon/Netflix I’m already there If you sum up the number of engineers at FAANGs assuming they average $500k/y you are already... plain wrong.
  - opportune 6y ago
    Agreed, though I would expect the “balking” would be the same whether someone had 10-20 years of experience at a $500k income or 2 years at $250k
- SoSoRoCoCo 6y ago
  Yeah, still not gonna believe some rando with no data. Let's look at 2017. Approx 143M people pay income tax [1]. Incomes above 500k are less than .8% of all incomes. [2] That puts the number to work from at ~1M people. There are >1M doctors in the US [3]. There are >1M lawyers in the US [4]. Those are top earners, excluding stock traders and investors. That will eat up the majority of the 1M people. Anecdotally, I've worked in tech for 30 years and have been at dozens of companies and only the top handful fellows and principles make >500k and that is with thinks like deferred compensation and options. So basically, unless you can show me some data, I don't buy your claims. [1] https://www.reference.com/world-view/many-u-s-taxpayers-d77a9265390f4bdb https://www.reference.com/world-view/many-u-s-taxpayers-d77a... [2] https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2020-10/56575-Household-Income.pdf https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2020-10/56575-Household-Inc... [3] https://www.statista.com/topics/1244/physicians/ https://www.statista.com/topics/1244/physicians/ [4] https://www.statista.com/statistics/740222/number-of-lawyers-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/740222/number-of-lawyers...
  - opportune 6y ago
    Check out levels.fyi or blind or the many people here making that much. I didn’t mean to imply that all the engineers at those companies are making $500k although with 10-20 yoe you would probably be making about that much. Also similarly to engineers, definitely not all lawyers or doctors are earning in that range either. I’m not invested enough in proving the point to find better data (h1bdata is a good start, but IIRC it only includes salary) but as someone who works at one of those companies I can tell you many people I work with are making $500k or more especially with RSU appreciation.

If I sum up the number of engineers at Google/FB/Apple/Amazon/Netflix I’m already there and if I include engineers from successful unicorns and decacorns, plus older big companies like Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, Intuit I’ve added way more people although probably not in the $500k range unless they are like directors. Then there are other groups like HFT/Prop trading/Hedge Funds but those are probably only a few thousand or maybe ten thousand. Sorry, I meant these companies have experienced (10-20 years) engineers at $500k where younger employees could expect to rise up to that level, not that every employee at these companies are making $500k.

eeZah7Ux 6y ago
> If I sum up the number of engineers at Google/FB/Apple/Amazon/Netflix I’m already there If you sum up the number of engineers at FAANGs assuming they average $500k/y you are already... plain wrong.
- opportune 6y ago
  Agreed, though I would expect the “balking” would be the same whether someone had 10-20 years of experience at a $500k income or 2 years at $250k
SoSoRoCoCo 6y ago
Yeah, still not gonna believe some rando with no data. Let's look at 2017. Approx 143M people pay income tax [1]. Incomes above 500k are less than .8% of all incomes. [2] That puts the number to work from at ~1M people. There are >1M doctors in the US [3]. There are >1M lawyers in the US [4]. Those are top earners, excluding stock traders and investors. That will eat up the majority of the 1M people. Anecdotally, I've worked in tech for 30 years and have been at dozens of companies and only the top handful fellows and principles make >500k and that is with thinks like deferred compensation and options. So basically, unless you can show me some data, I don't buy your claims. [1] https://www.reference.com/world-view/many-u-s-taxpayers-d77a9265390f4bdb https://www.reference.com/world-view/many-u-s-taxpayers-d77a... [2] https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2020-10/56575-Household-Income.pdf https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2020-10/56575-Household-Inc... [3] https://www.statista.com/topics/1244/physicians/ https://www.statista.com/topics/1244/physicians/ [4] https://www.statista.com/statistics/740222/number-of-lawyers-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/740222/number-of-lawyers...
- opportune 6y ago
  Check out levels.fyi or blind or the many people here making that much. I didn’t mean to imply that all the engineers at those companies are making $500k although with 10-20 yoe you would probably be making about that much. Also similarly to engineers, definitely not all lawyers or doctors are earning in that range either. I’m not invested enough in proving the point to find better data (h1bdata is a good start, but IIRC it only includes salary) but as someone who works at one of those companies I can tell you many people I work with are making $500k or more especially with RSU appreciation.