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"Excessive" is obviously a subjective measurement. At times I don't think that HN's median audience appreciates that a 400k/yr salary is objectively extremely h
by chipotle_coyote 1y ago
"Excessive" is obviously a subjective measurement. At times I don't think that HN's median audience appreciates that a 400k/yr salary is objectively extremely high, even for software engineers, even in 2025. A "mere" $367K/yr total compensation puts you in the 90th percentile of SWE earnings. I know Google, Facebook, and a few others greatly exceed that in total compensation at their higher SWE levels, but they're probably not the baseline you should be looking at across the industry.
I would personally say that $400K/yr for being an open source developer is fantastic, although I appreciate that that's also subjective. Even in Silicon Valley, though, $400K/yr would net you about $18K/month, which would be enough to live quite comfortably while still socking away more than half of your income for retirement.
- adgjlsfhk1 1y agoit's really important to not compare freelance and W2 salaries directly. freelance gets 10% off the top immediately for social security and Medicare taxes that employers usually pay. next is your health insurance which will eat another couple thousand a year. then you have to remember that as freelance you don't get paid for vacation and sick time, so there goes another ~10%. also, you're not getting paid for all the hours. if you spend a day without work to do as a freelance, you don't get payed for it. $200 an hour is still a good salary, but it's not $400k a year. it's probably closer to $250k