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No - because I think their wages are far too volatile to easily track. When I entered into software development (like fifteen years ago - not in the 70's) I in

by munk-a 5y ago

No - because I think their wages are far too volatile to easily track. When I entered into software development (like fifteen years ago - not in the 70's) I initially made 45k - while first years in SV were pulling in 120k-140k. I wanted to look at more senior positions first because I think they're more stable over time and the employees there will advocate stronger against paycuts... And if the senior employees are stubborn in their advocacy then junior employees tend to benefit from it - if senior employees consent to letting their wages slip then everyone below them in experience is expected to just go along with it.

tshaddox 5y ago
My point wasn't that only entry-level positions would be affected over time, but rather that the compensation of all roles could be affected simply by starting new people out with lower compensation and increasing compensation more slowly throughout each worker's career. In other words, the average pay of a senior engineer could be lower in 20 years than it is now without any individual's pay ever decreasing.
- munk-a 5y ago
  I think that entry-level positions (outside of SF) are usually driven mostly by whatever the local cost of living is plus a bit to keep the positions clearly above what retail positions can offer - CoL would similarly take a while to adjust to the new lower income of folks so I wouldn't expect it to respond particularly quickly. But yea, I agree that that's one way to pull down the wages. I do think they'd end up suffering from the same sort of pressure though - if you pull on an entry level person at a low rate then there will be a lot of tempting competing offers they'll be considering when they've got a year or two under their belt - and then they'll be in the same pool as the other junior devs (or maybe the intermediate ones). I hasn't really thought about the zero experience folk though - thanks for mentioning it!

by munk-a 5y ago

tshaddox 5y ago

My point wasn't that only entry-level positions would be affected over time, but rather that the compensation of all roles could be affected simply by starting new people out with lower compensation and increasing compensation more slowly throughout each worker's career. In other words, the average pay of a senior engineer could be lower in 20 years than it is now without any individual's pay ever decreasing.

munk-a 5y ago
I think that entry-level positions (outside of SF) are usually driven mostly by whatever the local cost of living is plus a bit to keep the positions clearly above what retail positions can offer - CoL would similarly take a while to adjust to the new lower income of folks so I wouldn't expect it to respond particularly quickly. But yea, I agree that that's one way to pull down the wages. I do think they'd end up suffering from the same sort of pressure though - if you pull on an entry level person at a low rate then there will be a lot of tempting competing offers they'll be considering when they've got a year or two under their belt - and then they'll be in the same pool as the other junior devs (or maybe the intermediate ones). I hasn't really thought about the zero experience folk though - thanks for mentioning it!