Is it some kind of being nice telling people they are underpaid all the time just because someone else earns more? Let's be frank: Level of skill, experience (not just measured in years), productivity and (kinda important for salary and promotions) self-presentation vary greatly among employees. In a knowledge-based role like software engineer these make a huge impact on quality and quantity of work. Thus it's only natural in a free market that some individuals earn more and some less.
Salary isn't just a function of [years of experience] * [COL]. The majority is not skilled enough in some trait to make it into the high paying jobs or companies. It might not feel like that on HN, but this is a very selected/biased group of people. Statistically speaking not only are 50% above the average, 50% are below. This is not only true for salary, but for everything including skill etc.
Let's not forget that FAANG also make ridiculous margins and can afford to pay that well and pick every employee from hundreds of applications. That's also impossible for most traditional companies. A lot of big companies run between 200k-300k$ revenue per employee and not 1million. It's impossible for them to pay these wages (especially as revenue does not equal money available for salaries).
Am I saying that skill and productivity are always in line with salary? No. But it doesn't help to tell everyone paid less they are underpaid. Maybe they just lack some kind of skill and even if it's just the ability to correctly market their value, solve coding challenges in interviews or network into better positions. They might never earn the high figures and it really doesn't help to make them feel bad about it (granted this comment also isn't cheerful, but it's aimed at the people calling "underpaid" all the time)
Salary isn't just a function of [years of experience] * [COL]. The majority is not skilled enough in some trait to make it into the high paying jobs or companies. It might not feel like that on HN, but this is a very selected/biased group of people. Statistically speaking not only are 50% above the average, 50% are below. This is not only true for salary, but for everything including skill etc.
Let's not forget that FAANG also make ridiculous margins and can afford to pay that well and pick every employee from hundreds of applications. That's also impossible for most traditional companies. A lot of big companies run between 200k-300k$ revenue per employee and not 1million. It's impossible for them to pay these wages (especially as revenue does not equal money available for salaries).
Am I saying that skill and productivity are always in line with salary? No. But it doesn't help to tell everyone paid less they are underpaid. Maybe they just lack some kind of skill and even if it's just the ability to correctly market their value, solve coding challenges in interviews or network into better positions. They might never earn the high figures and it really doesn't help to make them feel bad about it (granted this comment also isn't cheerful, but it's aimed at the people calling "underpaid" all the time)