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They're not lower than in the States, they are lower than the bay area, which is a very, very small bit of the States. Also, it's dominated by a particular kind

They're not lower than in the States, they are lower than the bay area, which is a very, very small bit of the States. Also, it's dominated by a particular kind of business (VC funded startups) that have the cash and mandate to spend a lot of money on engineering salaries. These are not too common outside the bay area, and certainly not as concentrated anywhere.

khuey 13y ago
If you think the software engineer employment market in the bay area is dominated by VC funded startups you've spent far too much time on Hacker News.
ascotan 13y ago
Actually I would say that they are lower that in the U.S. Again it depends on where in the U.S. you're talking about but I would say that £40 is entry level, £50K is for a intermediate level £70K for senior and £100K is pretty much the max before you hit management. I would say that salaries like this are pretty much on par with most major metro areas in the U.S. (not just silicon valley)
nandemo 13y ago
I'm not sure how the relative geographical size of the Bay Area is relevant here. In terms of programming jobs, the Bay Area is a very significant part of the US. In any case, this and other polls indicate that programmer salaries in London are also lower than in many other large American metropolitan areas, not only SV. I did a quick search on Indeed for software engineer salaries in several American cities (NYC, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Houston, Austin, Portland, Miami, whatever came to my mind) and in all of them the average salary is over U$85k. In fact I also searched for junior software engineer and in all of them it's at least U$60k, still within the £40~45k range which is the mode of the poll (and presumably filled with mostly non-junior developers). If you look at average programming salaries in Tokyo or Paris you'll see a similar thing. The interesting question is not why London salaries are "low", but how come American salaries are so high.

khuey 13y ago

If you think the software engineer employment market in the bay area is dominated by VC funded startups you've spent far too much time on Hacker News.

ascotan 13y ago

Actually I would say that they are lower that in the U.S. Again it depends on where in the U.S. you're talking about but I would say that £40 is entry level, £50K is for a intermediate level £70K for senior and £100K is pretty much the max before you hit management. I would say that salaries like this are pretty much on par with most major metro areas in the U.S. (not just silicon valley)

nandemo 13y ago

I'm not sure how the relative geographical size of the Bay Area is relevant here. In terms of programming jobs, the Bay Area is a very significant part of the US. In any case, this and other polls indicate that programmer salaries in London are also lower than in many other large American metropolitan areas, not only SV. I did a quick search on Indeed for software engineer salaries in several American cities (NYC, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Houston, Austin, Portland, Miami, whatever came to my mind) and in all of them the average salary is over U$85k. In fact I also searched for junior software engineer and in all of them it's at least U$60k, still within the £40~45k range which is the mode of the poll (and presumably filled with mostly non-junior developers). If you look at average programming salaries in Tokyo or Paris you'll see a similar thing. The interesting question is not why London salaries are "low", but how come American salaries are so high.