Come on! Everyone posting on HN makes $500K a year, has a vacation home in Tahoe and drives a brand new Ferrari. They think "L6 at Google in the Bay Area" is the median job level for the entire software industry.
Isn't the average for software developers in the US ~100k(before taxes)?
Assuming that high earners are offsetting that to the higher end, most people aren't making 6 figures, and the bar isn't which language they're programming in.
One of the few areas of reliable statistics about US software developer pay come from the US Government Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median wage as of May 2023:
$132,270
This means half of all full time employed devs are higher, and half are lower. The mean is more skewed by higher earners but is similar:
$138,110
It also varies quite widely by geographic location, from a mean high of $173,780 in California to only $125,890 in Texas, from $199,800 in San Jose to $132,500 in Austin to $98,960 in rural Kansas (where I have actually developed software before!)
The short of it is, the vast majority of software developers do not make the top salaries. Even L6 is rare within the top tier of tech. There is a lot of delusion in this field around pay, so it's important to be well informed. As a field we are still very well paid compared to most other jobs especially considering our safe working conditions and lack of needed credentials and education. Compared to most of the work on this planet, it's still a goldmine.
That doesn't match my experience on both ends of the hiring table. And forgive me if forwarding the BLS statistics to candidates doesn't get them to accept offers, because I know it wouldn't help me when I can get paid a lot more elsewhere.
> That doesn't match my experience on both ends of the hiring table.
Congratulations, your experience is limited. The BLS stats represent the actual US salary data, not just your limited experience. If you want to make a claim about salaries in the US then look at data across the US and not just whatever is true within your limited bubble.
> And forgive me if forwarding the BLS statistics to candidates doesn't get them to accept offers
Is 7 figures even realistic? I was under the impression that even a senior FAANG job was still just under $300k typically. Does anyone outside of a CTO/CIO make $1mil+?
I know half a dozen of Senior Staff at FAANGs and they make I would say around 600k - 700k, more of course if stocks appreciate but that's hard to control.
Consistent total compensation offers of $1mil+ is probably reserved for roles above these, sometimes called Principal or Distinguished. I would say the rate of having one of these in an org are like 1 for ~150 engineers.
If you sample only from the 10,000 or so current Olympic athletes, you will draw similarly incorrect conclusions about the 8 billion planetary general population's athletic ability.
Bro this comment is so out of touch it's ridiculous. A 6 figure salary is lucrative. 7 figures is a crazy pipe dream that basically nobody will ever experience.
No engineer that makes 7 figures calls themselves a ruby developer with the exception of DHH.