Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds
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This whole thing is reminding me of Harold Macmillan: "You've never had it so good."
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@Dashrender said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
@StorageNinja said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
@tonyshowoff said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
Except, again, I'm talking pre-inflation since then. Let me know when they're paying engineers $190K+ because that's what it would be now. It sounds like a lot now because they've kept wages down against inflation.
and again, I'm not talking base wages. The plans are so stock and bonus heavy now that TC is the number that should be compared not wages. Also, I don't know if H1B wages are a good indicator of a "good" median career engineer (Just looking for public data). Now I'd argue the bigger thing is inflation adjustment's kind of a mess because the real estate market there and tax climate has gotten so ridiculous that's the bigger reason TC has to be as high as it is. It's not about wages being held down, it's about local real COL going to the moon.
Definitely have a point - but waiting 3 years or more to get your hands on some cash seems boardline crazy risky to me. Those options ideas are likely only for those who can afford to wait on those funds in many cases.
It's not. For most established professionals, waiting three years to get a lot more money than you'd see otherwise is a no brainer.
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@Dashrender said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
@StorageNinja said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
The key to variable income is live like you don't need it, and use it for capital purchases that the opex can be controlled.
This is really a giant - duh!
Live like it's never going to happen, when you bank 2-5 years worth of it, then maybe up your living style - or as you mentioned, use it on some huge capital transaction.
A lot of people use it to retire. Work and live on a small salary, bank a huge stock option portfolio, cash out and retire to an island.
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@StorageNinja said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
@scottalanmiller said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
I did this for my time in a SV firm. Worked from Spain and Panama while on a SV salary.
The real fun is getting them to pay for the travel
They did.
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@StorageNinja said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
. People don't get 400K in RSU's, on a 50K salary.
Right - so the point is these RSU's and other comps aren't really important for someone making $125K... because if you're lucky you might get another 50% - again if lucky.. and now you're making the same as you were 20 years ago - assuming there were no RSUs 20 years ago for these same people.
The point is an overall comparison. I find it hard to believe that the type of people we are talking about across the country are making more today than they were 20 years ago, when you consider inflation...
I'm making 17% more than I was 10 years ago. According to Google, since 2006, inflation is 21.59%. So i'm making noticeably less than I was making 10 years ago.
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@Dashrender said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
I'm making 17% more than I was 10 years ago. According to Google, since 2006, inflation is 21.59%. So i'm making noticeably less than I was making 10 years ago.
Almost no one who stays in a single position sees more money over time, it is a super rare company or position that keeps up with inflation.
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@scottalanmiller said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
@Dashrender said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
I'm making 17% more than I was 10 years ago. According to Google, since 2006, inflation is 21.59%. So i'm making noticeably less than I was making 10 years ago.
Almost no one who stays in a single position sees more money over time, it is a super rare company or position that keeps up with inflation.
Oh sure - I hear ya... and overall I'm not complaining.
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@scottalanmiller said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
I'm making 17% more than I was 10 years ago. According to Google, since 2006, inflation is 21.59%. So i'm making noticeably less than I was making 10 years ago.
Almost no one who stays in a single position sees more money over time, it is a super rare company or position that keeps up with inflation.
That's a 1.59% annual raise (assuming you started at 100K and ended at 117K).
Note, the Consumer Price Index reports $100 to $116.
So that's basically a net zero raise (note, COL is more than CPI, and it depends on your region this might be more or less).Again, getting back to my comment on SMB IT. There is rarely enough flexibility to move "up" in position in a small shop. If the IT roll provides the same "value" to the business (or less as services or key systems become outsourced), why would pay go up for this position?
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@Dashrender said in Nine Out of Every 10 Silicon Valley Jobs Pays Less Than In 1997, Report Finds:
Right - so the point is these RSU's and other comps aren't really important for someone making $125K... because if you're lucky you might get another 50% - again if lucky.. and now you're making the same as you were 20 years ago - assuming there were no RSUs 20 years ago for these same people.
It's not really lucky if it's a public company of a major company who has a proven track record.
Looking at some recent offer data.LinkedIn - $250K -400K in RSU's for a Senior Software Engineer for the initial grant.
Boeing - $300K with refreshers of 40KAdditional yearly grant refreshers beyond the initial are all over the place but tied to how much a company wants to keep you but assuming it's 25% of your base salary (not uncommon) with some reasonable stock appreciation you could be looking at close to 300% of initial offer in TC by year 4 which gets back to why I said this article was crap. Wages != Total Compensation in Silicon Valley.
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Boeing might be screwed these days
