[Aqwis]

I work as a software developer in Norway. I've long had the impression that there are a lot of workers in my industry – particularly older people but not exclusively – who simply don't seem to care that much about their salary or total compensation package, don't put a lot of effort into salary negotiations and who tend to be happy with annual salary increases just above what's necessary to keep up with inflation. Good for them, but they harm everyone else by bringing down the mean salary in the industry. If there are lots of older developers who are perfectly happy with earning $80,000 10+ years into their career then it's very hard to justify why you should earn $120,000 with three years of experience, even though the value you bring to the company is much greater than that.

This is exacerbated by the fact that it's very hard to fire people and that most developers work for relatively large and stable companies that rarely go out of business. Both of these factors are pleasant for the workers (including myself), of course, but they can have a negative or stabilising effect on salaries. Regular shocks which would cause poorly run companies to go bankrupt without changing the aggregate demand for developers would help push developer salaries upwards.

[null_object]

As a younger developer I certainly had an unrealistic idea of my value to the company's profitability which has attenuated to a more realistic assessment these days: maybe that's part of why "older developers" are satisfied with relatively lower salaries. It may also be to do with a healthy attitude to work/life balance: demanding a higher salary can correlate with greater demands on your time (including even weekend work).

My view is that competent developers can rise to the level of income they deserve, without sweating it too much that others with more experience are somehow keeping them back.

[Aqwis]

The point is that because of the mentioned factors, artificially little of companies' revenues flow to developers (in the form of wages or other compensation). If the general salary level of developers in the local market increased, then I believe that would happen without large sacrifices to workload or work/life-balance (many of which would be illegal under local laws anyway), because it would only make up for the salary level today being artifically low.

[duggan]

If you think you're worth 120k to some company, you should find that company. Or found it.

[Aqwis]

I'm quite happy with my current salary – the problem is that I don't know anyone with my level of experience who earns more than me, and I'm certainly not the person among all my friends and acquaintances who provides the most value to his company. I've ended up where I am by spending a lot of time looking for jobs and being very selective, but it would be nice if the general salary level were higher so that more people could get paid according to the value they provide.

[ilammy]

Weirdly enough, your comment makes very much sense. But at the same time it reads like it would be nice from time to time to get a natural disaster here, economic crisis there, and a little war next door — just so that people know that they must always be ready to fight for something better rather than being content with what they have. Which also makes very much sense, in a way.

The gist of it seems to be the age old “problem” that older people are conservative and want stability while younger people want new things and to their own place in the world. It used to be solved naturally by older people dying and freeing up space, but recently society started progressing so much faster than before that people are not dying fast enough to “keep up” with the progress by taking their old and obsolete things, viewpoints and habits to the grave.