
Facebook Median Pay now $240k - f00biebletch
https://www.sfgate.com/business/networth/article/Yes-median-pay-at-Facebook-really-is-about-12870786.php?t=4bd335ea10
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dx034
That is only possible because of outsourcing. If you only employ the highest
paid earners and use contractors for all support staff, you artificially
inflate your median salary. I'd bet that FB has much lower salaries if you
count anyone working full time for Facebook.

~~~
camillomiller
All the "Facebook" content screeners in Berlin, Germany, are actually
employees of a contractor (Arvato-Bertelsmann) who is mostly hiring them
through job agencies. They're in charge of deciding what has to be banned
according to Facebook Community Guidelines. They get to see gore, suicide
videos, racial slurs etc. all the time, with no proper psychological training.
They earn minimum wage (around 10$ per hour) and they're completely
disposable.

Nonetheless, when Facebook had to face a small content-related crisis in
Germany in 2016, that didn't stop Zuckerberg from saying the the company hires
teams of hundreds in Germany to stop the spreading of hate content. They
don't.

Source: Inside Facebook - Im Netz des Bösen, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2016.
(sorry, paywall). [http://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/inside-facebook-im-
netz-d...](http://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/inside-facebook-im-netz-des-
boesen-1.3295206)

~~~
kossae
I’ve always been curious as to what “psychological training” would consist of
to prepare for seeing such explicit content day in and day out. Perhaps
something similar to military/war psychological practices?

~~~
whb07
Even in the military there is no such thing as this type of training.

source: was infantry.

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hliyan
I've been thinking a lot about the merits of the _(highest income / median
income)_ ratio in creating a society that is a little more resistant to
eventual inequality. Rather than setting absolute tax brackets, what if we
define tax brackets by this ratio? That way, it will be in the interest of the
highest income earners to raise the median income.

~~~
dx034
That sounds interesting but would probably be a paradise for tax lawyers. You
just create a network of companies, one for each income band. That way, an
employee never makes more than the average. Of course only large corperations
can afford that so that smaller companies will have a harder time hiring
talent.

~~~
fergie
In most jurisdictions a limit a limited company has to have a board and a CEO.
You can outsource middle management- this is what McKinsey, Bain, BSG etc
essentially do, but you can't legally outsource the guys at the very top.

~~~
icebraining
So what? They would just be the department heads of the previously monolith
company (e.g. instead of having a sales department with a VP of sales and a
few top managers, you just have a Sales Company subsidiary with a CEO and a
few board members).

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snvzz
That's great for those with the moral flexibility to work on such a profoundly
evil company, for the detriment of mankind.

~~~
newscracker
It's clear that many people have a price at which they'd do things that they
otherwise would not.

~~~
badosu
The question is, aren't there?

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setpatchaddress
Includes RSUs, for those who don’t feel like reading the article.

~~~
inferiorhuman
IIRC this article includes stock options for engineers but not the CEO.
Meanwhile, not counted, are the legions of Facebook contractors (e.g. food
service, janitorial, and some? a plurality? engineers).

~~~
dvirsky
> Zuckerberg took a $1 salary last year and got no new stock grants (on top of
> the $70 billion in Facebook stock he already owns). His $8.8 million in
> compensation last year was mainly for his personal security detail and
> private aircraft use.

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zerr
Not so much in H1B data: [http://www.myvisajobs.com/Visa-
Sponsor/Facebook/189973_Salar...](http://www.myvisajobs.com/Visa-
Sponsor/Facebook/189973_Salary.htm)

At least for the base salary I guess.

~~~
underwater
Stock is a significant part of the remuneration for Facebook employees.
Probably close to 50% for engineers.

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lucideer
> _Gap said its median-paid employee, a real person, was a part-time sales
> associate in Alabama who worked a partial year and whose pay was not
> annualized._

It seems odd to compare the non-annualised salary of a part-time worker to
those of full-time/annualised. Is this a strategy by Gap to deflect attention
(I know $5375 is extremely low, but I have no ration/scale/factor to compare
it by, so I don't know exactly _how_ low. This employee in Alabama could be
working a day a month), or is this format of reporting actually required by
Dodd-Frank?

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f00biebletch
I've definitely felt the challenge of hiring in a startup as a result of these
kinds of numbers. I'm curious what others think will come of this seeming
bubble in compensation.

~~~
fergie
Its not a bubble. $240k is a reasonable salary for a professional with good
grades from a good university working for a highly profitable private company.
In fact as long as there is such a gap between revenue per employee, and
compensation per employee, there will only be upward pressure on pay and
conditions.

In reality, software engineering salaries outside of established tech
environments are kept artificially low because there is no "guild of software
engineers", and therefore anybody can get hired no matter what level of skill
they have.

I too run a software startup. The most common and serious error I see in my
fellow startup founders is expecting to build better technology with worse pay
and conditions. You might be able to wrangle something decent out of some
poorly qualified yet smart people, but its a bit of a long shot.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
_Its not a bubble._

I'm pretty sure it is and I'm quite looking forward to seeing it burst.

~~~
Kephael
When I attended Facebook university day, 100% of the students I spoke with
were from top schools. The majority I spoke with were from Ivy League
Universities, of the non Ivy League students, one was from MIT, two from UMD,
one from UCLA, and one from UT Austin. This is not a bubble, this is them
hiring the best. I have been in class with students who chose to enter
software engineering at major companies rather than investment banking.

~~~
f00biebletch
Although that notion of "the best" has been deeply challenged by slack, e.g.
[https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/how-s...](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/how-
slack-got-ahead-in-diversity/558806/)

~~~
Kephael
I could never get an interview at Slack, but they are not hiring the best.
Their compensation is far too low.

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macca321
Is this the same in the UK?

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gambiting
I know a guy working in their London office as a programmer and he makes
£60k/year. So no, probably not.

Edit: in UK in general you won't be seeing £150k+ salaries as a programmer no
matter who you work for, the only way to get there is contracting. Top paying
salaried positions for really senior staff in London at financial companies
top out at around £120-130k.

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akhilcacharya
Honestly, I'm more surprised that other folks are surprised. How much do ya'll
think top SWEs make?

