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Do engineers in Europe get as much of their comp in stock as the do in Silicon Valley? My hypothesis on why salaries have gone up so high here is if you want to
by 6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago
Do engineers in Europe get as much of their comp in stock as the do in Silicon Valley? My hypothesis on why salaries have gone up so high here is if you want to hire folks away from successful companies, that success means their stock grant is likely worth loads more than it was when they signed on, which you now have to match to compete.
If hypothetically every engineer at Apple hired in 2017 got $100k/yr (say $70k cash and $30k RSUs) but because the stock has 4x’d in that time, now they’re making $200k ($70k cash, $130k RSUs). To hire them away now you have to offer $200k as a starting package. And that’s for every single Apple employee with significant stock comp. There’s a critical mass of successful companies, so for google to hire from Airbnb, they have to pay that skyrocketing-comp premium. Airbnb has to do the same to hire from Uber. Uber has to do the same to hire from Facebook, and so on.
Stock based comp in an on-average-growing competitive environment means market comp goes up too.
- MuffinFlavored 6y ago> If hypothetically every engineer at Apple hired in 2017 got $100k/yr https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Apple&track=Software%20Engineer https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Apple&track=Software%20Engin... ICT2: $165k ICT3: $214k ICT4: $315k ICT5: $440k ICT6: $681k Point: $100k/yr total comp is pretty low for Apple's standards.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 6y agoYup, and that was on purpose. If salaries were low (like in OP's area), then you'd see this rapid upward pressure, presumably contributing to a change towards the higher salaries you mention. The more relevant bit is probably whether I was way off on the percent split between cash and RSUs.
- ff232fffffrt 6y agoI am a software developer for 15 years and I don't know a single developer who make more than 100K$ a year in Germany (I only talk about regular employment and not about freelancers, because freelancers can work overtime and get bills from other countries including USA).
- euengtaway50 6y agoWhere are you based and who are you talking to? 100k USD is just 82k€, which is easily achievable even in places like Zalando.
- distances 6y agoJust a minor FYI: you absolutely don't need to work overtime to get over 100k€ from German customers as a freelancer.
- HenryKissinger 6y agoApple has only 16,000 engineers. Landing a software engineering internship at Apple is extremely difficult. Landing a full time job as a software engineer at Apple is even more difficult. The people we're talking about are a small caste of privileged individuals. Their salaries do not reflect the norm of othet software engineers in the US.
- gamechangr 6y agoHis example has nothing to do with Apple really. He means every publicly traded tech company with stock and how the collective market (though stock options) increases the money a SWE would make verses saying paying market value for a dentist that might be compensated well but has no competitive stock options to overcome. Great point