>It seems to me that there’s a class of programmer that will take an overpaid job at a terrible BigCo, People are bad at understanding risk. When a company pay

>It seems to me that there’s a class of programmer that will take an overpaid job at a terrible BigCo, People are bad at understanding risk. When a company pays significantly more for the same job than another, there is always an economic reason: * The job is undesirable because of how people are treated, and as a result the only way to attract and retain people is to overpay. The extra pay mitigates flight risk when the inevitable bad day or week happens for the hire. * Management is likely to or has a history of sudden lay offs and firings often indiscriminately. The extra pay mitigates the risk of sudden loss of income to the employee. * Poor reputation/employment brand requires paying more to get people to avoid the risk of associating with that bad employer brand. The extra money is being paid not because the employer wants to. It is exactly because they have to in order to hire and retain people that can do the job. The whole "we're better and pay a premium because you are the best developers in the world" is really management self-justifying having to overpay due to risk. When you look at compensation, ask yourself and the interviewer why is the company over-paying? You'll often save yourself years of misery.