[staticassertion]

Lots of other fields have on calls or out of work expectations. That's part of the job, and you're compensated highly.

It's not like on call is a shock or something, it's not "whatever they throw at me", it's just... part of the job. My sister is a dentist, she has to be on call sometimes, it's not a shocker or something you don't know when you're signing up for the job.

You're implying that people aren't negotiating, but that's baseless. Software engineers are highly compensated because of these expectations, and we all negotiate accordingly.

[rodgerd]

> Lots of other fields have on calls or out of work expectations.

Yes, and in many of them there are call-out fees and overtime. Programmers and sysadmins have convinced themselves that, as "professionals" they are not aligned with traditional working-class constructs like this.

[staticassertion]

> Yes, and in many of them there are call-out fees and overtime.

Why is that any better than just getting paid overall more? Lots of companies also have internal policies like "if you get called in on a weekend take a long weekend next week" etc in my experience.

[rodgerd]

Because then the company has a financial incentive to reduce call-outs and overtime.

[wildrhythms]

>we all negotiate accordingly

This is quite a sweeping statement to make. My first engineering job salary was non-negotiable. I was told to either accept it, or they 'rapidly' move to another candidate.

[staticassertion]

I meant more collectively. But of course, yes, it's sweeping. It'll change regionally, or based on experience, or company culture, etc.

But I don't think it's unfair to say, especially in the US, that software engineers are highly compensated.