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.
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.
marcellus23|1 year ago
ryandrake|1 year ago
dmvdoug|1 year ago
Xelynega|1 year ago
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.
alexawarrior4|1 year ago
$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.
Source: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm
duped|1 year ago
qwertygnu|1 year ago
bluedevilzn|1 year ago
The key here is not to categorize as a “language developer”.
sundaeofshock|1 year ago
How many companies are out there paying $1,000,000/year for devs?
How many devs who can command that kind salary are going to put up with bullshit coding challenges?
bluedevilzn|1 year ago
Google alone has 4000 directors all making a million at minimum.
I have only worked at FAANG across my nearly decade long career. So, it’s a biased but very large sample.
bigstrat2003|1 year ago