4 ms·

I'm NYC based Front-End Web developer and I'm earning $20 an hour, do you think it's time to move to another company?

venantius 12y ago
Dear god, yes. Realistically you'd be compensated at almost double that at even the smallest seed-stage startup out west, and I know that by and large the rate difference between SF and NY isn't significant.
danielweber 12y ago
Assuming this isn't a joke, get out now.
FLUX-YOU 12y ago
If you have at least a year of experience, I would put yourself back out on the market. That's junior-level pay (which is what I make!)
- danielweber 12y ago
  That's not even half of "junior-level pay" in a top-20 city, let alone NYC.
  - FLUX-YOU 12y ago
    But are the junior developers of the same quality in NYC as the rest of the country? If so, why are they paying 80k to people who basically only knew some syntax?
    - joshkpeterson 12y ago
      Because it's a market (not trying to be snarky, just succinct).
    - onedev 12y ago
      FWIW, I made nearly $50 an hour as an intern while still in school.
philangist 12y ago
To piggyback off your comment, I'm a backend developer (primarily Python/Django) with 1.5 yrs experience making 60k/yr in NYC.I feel that I might be underpaid and plan on asking for a raise but I'm not sure what salary range I should price myself in. Any NYC devs here able to give me some feedback?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- morgante 12y ago
  It really depends on your abilities (I largely don't care about years of experience). Do you have a github? Assuming that you're not exceptionally good, at 1.5years I'd still put you in the junior category with around $80-90k/yr.
  - philangist 12y ago
    I do have a github. I've got a few repos on there, all of varying scope and quality. It'd be cool if you could check it out here and let me know what you think: https://github.com/philangist https://github.com/philangist
    - morgante 12y ago
      I'd say you're probably looking at around $90k.
sbilstein 12y ago
You should probably be making around 100k
- philangist 12y ago
  Just curious where you got that number if you don't know OP's experience or skillset.
  - markkanof 12y ago
    I don't disagree with your general point, but I would also point out that the OP mentioned that he works at an advertising agency. A lot of these places tend to not really understand or value the skills and experience of technical people. A programmer is a programmer. So salary ends up being based more on negotiating skills. The difference between two years of experience or ten years of experience just doesn't matter that much.
    - philangist 12y ago
      That's an excellent point. I definitely wasn't challenging the validity of the number, I just wanted to know how it was reached so I could figure out how to value myself as an employee.
      - mjmahone17 12y ago
        From experience: I have a large-ish group of friends who started work in NYC over the past year at various start-ups, big-name companies, etc., and not one of them started at less than 90k (base) as developers, unless they were getting unusual amounts of equity. If you work for a bank, you should be making 130k+, because your hours suck and their brands are so bad right now, so good devs don't want to work for them (but often will if the offer is right).
        philangist 12y ago
        Jesus, I'm making 30k less than the minimum. Although looking at your profile you're an employee at Facebook, so it's possible your circle of friends are much more competent that the average coder on the street.
agilebyte 12y ago
Is that contracting or working full time as an employee? I have a data point for the latter: Front-End Dev, Canada (AB), $30/hour pre tax Considering that NYC has a lot more opportunity I would say you could make more. Robert Half* has some useful IT salary guides for US & Canada. * http://www.roberthalf.com/technology/it-salary-center http://www.roberthalf.com/technology/it-salary-center
- html5web 12y ago
  I'm full-time employee at Advertising agency, I work for company clients like: Oracle, Lufthansa, DIRECTV, Kaplan and North Shore LIJ.
prezjordan 12y ago
$20/hr is intern pay!
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
dataminer 12y ago
Yes, any decent Front-End dev can pull much more than that, do you have a portfolio?
- html5web 12y ago
  My personal portfolios: http://avaz.me/ http://avaz.me/ http://codepen.io/samarkandiy http://codepen.io/samarkandiy
  - html5web 12y ago
    https://avaz.me https://avaz.me

Dear god, yes. Realistically you'd be compensated at almost double that at even the smallest seed-stage startup out west, and I know that by and large the rate difference between SF and NY isn't significant.

danielweber 12y ago

Assuming this isn't a joke, get out now.

FLUX-YOU 12y ago

If you have at least a year of experience, I would put yourself back out on the market. That's junior-level pay (which is what I make!)

danielweber 12y ago
That's not even half of "junior-level pay" in a top-20 city, let alone NYC.
- FLUX-YOU 12y ago
  But are the junior developers of the same quality in NYC as the rest of the country? If so, why are they paying 80k to people who basically only knew some syntax?
  - joshkpeterson 12y ago
    Because it's a market (not trying to be snarky, just succinct).
  - onedev 12y ago
    FWIW, I made nearly $50 an hour as an intern while still in school.

philangist 12y ago

To piggyback off your comment, I'm a backend developer (primarily Python/Django) with 1.5 yrs experience making 60k/yr in NYC.I feel that I might be underpaid and plan on asking for a raise but I'm not sure what salary range I should price myself in. Any NYC devs here able to give me some feedback?

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
morgante 12y ago
It really depends on your abilities (I largely don't care about years of experience). Do you have a github? Assuming that you're not exceptionally good, at 1.5years I'd still put you in the junior category with around $80-90k/yr.
- philangist 12y ago
  I do have a github. I've got a few repos on there, all of varying scope and quality. It'd be cool if you could check it out here and let me know what you think: https://github.com/philangist https://github.com/philangist
  - morgante 12y ago
    I'd say you're probably looking at around $90k.

sbilstein 12y ago

You should probably be making around 100k

philangist 12y ago
Just curious where you got that number if you don't know OP's experience or skillset.
- markkanof 12y ago
  I don't disagree with your general point, but I would also point out that the OP mentioned that he works at an advertising agency. A lot of these places tend to not really understand or value the skills and experience of technical people. A programmer is a programmer. So salary ends up being based more on negotiating skills. The difference between two years of experience or ten years of experience just doesn't matter that much.
  - philangist 12y ago
    That's an excellent point. I definitely wasn't challenging the validity of the number, I just wanted to know how it was reached so I could figure out how to value myself as an employee.
    - mjmahone17 12y ago
      From experience: I have a large-ish group of friends who started work in NYC over the past year at various start-ups, big-name companies, etc., and not one of them started at less than 90k (base) as developers, unless they were getting unusual amounts of equity. If you work for a bank, you should be making 130k+, because your hours suck and their brands are so bad right now, so good devs don't want to work for them (but often will if the offer is right).
      - philangist 12y ago
        Jesus, I'm making 30k less than the minimum. Although looking at your profile you're an employee at Facebook, so it's possible your circle of friends are much more competent that the average coder on the street.

agilebyte 12y ago

Is that contracting or working full time as an employee? I have a data point for the latter: Front-End Dev, Canada (AB), $30/hour pre tax Considering that NYC has a lot more opportunity I would say you could make more. Robert Half* has some useful IT salary guides for US & Canada. * http://www.roberthalf.com/technology/it-salary-center http://www.roberthalf.com/technology/it-salary-center

html5web 12y ago
I'm full-time employee at Advertising agency, I work for company clients like: Oracle, Lufthansa, DIRECTV, Kaplan and North Shore LIJ.

prezjordan 12y ago

$20/hr is intern pay!

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

dataminer 12y ago

Yes, any decent Front-End dev can pull much more than that, do you have a portfolio?

html5web 12y ago
My personal portfolios: http://avaz.me/ http://avaz.me/ http://codepen.io/samarkandiy http://codepen.io/samarkandiy
- html5web 12y ago
  https://avaz.me https://avaz.me