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The wages for software developers were basically stagnant from 2001 to about 2014 or 2015. The big surge in pay is relatively recent. While this is a complex su

The wages for software developers were basically stagnant from 2001 to about 2014 or 2015. The big surge in pay is relatively recent. While this is a complex subject, I have written about a few examples, and can offer more. But take this as one example: Right now the best devops people in New York City are making between $200 and $300 an hour. That's obviously good money, but in the 1990s I had older friends who were making $200 an hour as Oracle consultants. At the top, the nominal pay has remained the same, but adjusting for inflation, that is a 50% paycut. Likewise, lower down, I know lots of mid-level devs who are happy to make $100 an hour right now, but I also had older friends who were slapping together classic VBA apps with VisualBasic, back around 1999, and they were also making $100 an hour, so, again, it's a 50% pay cut. But it is absolutely true that pay has been surging since about 2014/2015, so I imagine the software developer pay is about to catch up to the highs of the 1990s. It's also true that the picture only looks bad when compared to inflation. To your point, most other professions did even worse, so the benefits of being a computer programmer are more obvious if the comparison is to other professions. All in all, after the peak in 2000, the USA economy had a difficult 15 years.

jazzyk 5y ago
>But it is absolutely true that pay has been surging since about 2014/2015 Only partially true: 1. High total compensation (not salaries) is limited to FAANG/Unicorn employees (awash with money) 2. That high compensation has been achieved by stock options multiplying in value, thanks to abnormal run of the stock market (thank you Federal Reserve), which is not going to continue with rising interest rates 3. Salary base seems to be stuck at $150K for mid-senior developers in bigger cities (except for NYC) for many years now
- comp_throw7 5y ago
  > 1. High total compensation (not salaries) is limited to FAANG/Unicorn employees (awash with money) Very nearly every publicly-traded tech company, actually. The list of "tech" companies where mid-level engineers aren't breaking 200k TC is much shorter than the opposite. > 2. That high compensation has been achieved by stock options multiplying in value, thanks to abnormal run of the stock market (thank you Federal Reserve), which is not going to continue with rising interest rates Initial offers have been increasing; we aren't talking about golden handcuffs that employees have from stock growth. To give a very recent example: Amazon recently bumped up their pay-band for mid-level engineers and they seem to be hitting 350k/year (maybe more; have seen a couple reports of 400k). Their mid-level pay-band previously topped out at ~300k/year. > 3. Salary base seems to be stuck at $150K for mid-senior developers in bigger cities (except for NYC) for many years now ...you mean "except the Bay Area", right? Though it's definitely not true either way; I live in a large city that isn't in the Bay, Seattle, or NYC, and 180k is a pretty common number for senior engineer base salaries, and I see 200k+ more and more frequently. (Not that I care too much about just base; given the choice why would I work for a company that only pays base salary, i.e. ~half of what other companies pay?)

jazzyk 5y ago

>But it is absolutely true that pay has been surging since about 2014/2015 Only partially true: 1. High total compensation (not salaries) is limited to FAANG/Unicorn employees (awash with money) 2. That high compensation has been achieved by stock options multiplying in value, thanks to abnormal run of the stock market (thank you Federal Reserve), which is not going to continue with rising interest rates 3. Salary base seems to be stuck at $150K for mid-senior developers in bigger cities (except for NYC) for many years now

comp_throw7 5y ago
> 1. High total compensation (not salaries) is limited to FAANG/Unicorn employees (awash with money) Very nearly every publicly-traded tech company, actually. The list of "tech" companies where mid-level engineers aren't breaking 200k TC is much shorter than the opposite. > 2. That high compensation has been achieved by stock options multiplying in value, thanks to abnormal run of the stock market (thank you Federal Reserve), which is not going to continue with rising interest rates Initial offers have been increasing; we aren't talking about golden handcuffs that employees have from stock growth. To give a very recent example: Amazon recently bumped up their pay-band for mid-level engineers and they seem to be hitting 350k/year (maybe more; have seen a couple reports of 400k). Their mid-level pay-band previously topped out at ~300k/year. > 3. Salary base seems to be stuck at $150K for mid-senior developers in bigger cities (except for NYC) for many years now ...you mean "except the Bay Area", right? Though it's definitely not true either way; I live in a large city that isn't in the Bay, Seattle, or NYC, and 180k is a pretty common number for senior engineer base salaries, and I see 200k+ more and more frequently. (Not that I care too much about just base; given the choice why would I work for a company that only pays base salary, i.e. ~half of what other companies pay?)