The average salary for a Software Engineer is $107K per year in United States.

The average salary for a Software Engineer is $66K per year in Germany (~61% less).

Source: indeed and payscale.

I always find a bit funny when US devs in HN talk about getting salaries above $200K/year... when the average US dev gets half of that. (I find it funny because everybody here thinks we are above the average dev level and can get a job at Facebook/Google/Amazon/etc... which is statistically incorrect).

Well, IDK where I fit on the skill curve but... my total comp is personally well above that line. There's definitely a bi-modal effect with tech companies issuing RSUs that appreciate dramatically vs. random insurance company or telco.

> RSUs that appreciate dramatically

Well, yeah, luck certainly can factor in. There was a year I made around 1.35 million in total comp due to luck like this. Nowadays I mostly make around 150k.

It feels more like you choose the job you like because you are already rich.

I'm sure you can join one of the FAANGs and get, at least, $300k/year easily.

If I have a few millions in my bank, I'd definitely join an interesting startup with no regard to compensation.

1.3m/year definitely has some luck involved. 500k/year is probably less luck. Just joined one of the hot tech companies and stay for 4 years. You have to be unlucky to not get to 500k/year.

Wrong math. 61 percent of the US average. Not 61 percent less.

I'm talking more about the possibility, not average.

It's much easier to achieve 500k/year in Bay Area than in Europe.

500k/year can be achieved by being a senior engineer at one of the successful companies for a few years. The stock growth should take care of that, easily. There are probably like 100 of successful companies in Bay Area between 2010 to 2020.

There are thousands of people achieving this in Bay Area.

In Europe, the base salary is lower. The stock comp is also lower. If you are a regular IC, these 2 always go together. You would need a much higher stock growth. This level of compensation is rarely heard of that it seems impossible.

> There are thousands of people achieving this in Bay Area.

thousands ? out of how many ? seems like a tiny fraction

Sure, but it's more attainable/possible when compared to other occupations, say, doctors, lawyers, footballers, and etc.

Way more attainable.

Who says everyone here can't get a job paying 300k or whatever? Why is that statistically incorrect? Moreover, median != mean due to lefthand skew of the salary distribution of developers. Also probably excess kurtosis as well.

I guess they mean that:

- number of software engineers in the US: X - number of software engineers in HN: Y - number of software engineers working for FAANG-like companies: N

Where X >>>> Y >> N. So, yes, I also think that everyone here can't get a job paying 300K or higher not because we are not skilled enough but by simple math.

> There is absolutely no way to get 500k/year from being just an engineer in Europe.

Proprietary trading shops in London at the top end or L6+ at Google Zurich can pay that in total comp.

> I recall the React creator's base salary is 100k/year in London, and he works at Facebook.

And what about stocks? There should be at least another 100k in them. Facebook is a publicly tradable company, its RSUs are as good as cash, unlike startup paper money.

Sure, but the base salary for the React creator shouldn't be that low.

That's like a new grad engineer at twitter if we simply compare base salary.

That's 100k pounds, not dollars, and he's making more in RSUs. I also imagine he's an E5, because E6 salaries in London are higher than that.

To be honest, given how Facebook works, all the work he does in React/Redux is probably hindering him in terms of getting promotions.

$100k pounds ($130k) is still too low for the React creator.

When I was a new grad 8 years ago, my base salary was $120k already.

Unless he got a special deal, for an IC, the stock is proportional to the base salary. If your base salary is low, your stock will also be low.

Why the focus on base salary alone? Total (liquid) compensation is what matters, as the high paying places tend to be either equity (FAANGs) or bonus (finance) heavy. And 200k+ GBP TC is very good pay for UK market, probably 99th percentile

For reference, Dan Abramov's tweet regarding his salary in London :

https://twitter.com/dan_abramov/status/1228454264915271683

It is absolutely possible at FAANG companies (eg partner level at MS, principal level at G) and other publicly traded (US) companies or startups. Most of it is in stock.

I would guess that his total compensation is probably 2-5x that.

$100k or £100k?

£100k but that's like $130K USD which is a new grad engineer at, say, Twitter.