Tangential, but an entry level developer at 190k USD per year seems nuts, is that really a reasonable number? From a quick search, I find numbers below 100k USD for the bay area, which seems more reasonable.
In a well off European country, you'd pay around 45k USD for a strong entry level developer. I can imagine 2x salaries, considering costs of living, fire at will and all that, but >4x? Not sure how to back that up.
>In a well off European country, you'd pay around 45k USD for a strong entry level developer. I can imagine 2x salaries, considering costs of living, fire at will and all that, but >4x? Not sure how to back that up.
You back that up with the fact that Google makes 500k USD profit per employee, AFTER they pay each of them 200k+ in salaries plus added taxes and other expenses. Valve makes 19 Million USD profit per employee. There are no European tech companies that make even remotely as much profit per employee, so obviously they'll never be able to pay such salaries no matter how much EU workers as for.
It's not like the US tech workers work 4x harder, or 4x faster, or are 4x smarter than the European ones, it's that their companies are 4x more profitable and that reflects in workers' compensation.
Also, a few years ago I had teams in multiple countries (South East Asia, India, Easter Europe, Western Europe, East and West Coast), all well paid (but not at FAANG levels). While their capacity was roughly similar, the West Coast ones were by far the more expensive ones, but also quite stressed out to make ends meet (buying a house, having a kid, putting them through school) compared to the other teams.
Eastern Europe was a place to find hidden gems (very cheap - but not so now), and some brilliant people (but not all of them). Western Europe was consistent, solid moderate quality at moderate costs vs US. So in line with your views
>but also quite stressed out to make ends meet (buying a house, having a kid, putting them through school) compared to the other teams.
Because a well paid SW dev wages goes soooo much further in developing countries, you're basically a king as every other profession earns very poor in comparison, so home ownership is no issue.
Well, the author did cite Levels, which is pretty reliable. A quick search shows that >150k seems accurate for a lot of the top tech companies (eg. Google).
I absolutely know people individually who made 150k+ out of college. Sorry europeans, but Bay Area salaries are definitely a large multiple of European salaries, even entry level.
A lot of this is possible because these companies make a lot of money, and a lot of money per employee, and that trickles down to new-hire salaries. It doesn't seem like there are many wildly profitable European companies in tech, at least not ones that can really drive up salaries like this. It's too bad, because Europe broadly has really strong talent, but I imagine there is a constant pressure pulling people away for more money.
Definitely not what they were, especially for more junior developers as I understand it. And I assume total comp is somewhat depressed too if only because of the stock market.
Agree US market seems bloated, not only salaries but also positions, you can find "seniors" with 2 years of experience, maybe a side effect from the pandemic boom
In a well off European country, you'd pay around 45k USD for a strong entry level developer. I can imagine 2x salaries, considering costs of living, fire at will and all that, but >4x? Not sure how to back that up.