[kragen]

Can you give some ballpark absolute salary numbers here? It's a different story if we're talking about doubling from US$10k/year to US$20k/year or if we're talking about doubling from US$250k/year to US$500k/year.

The Twitter thread https://birdsite.xanny.family/Tennistetris/status/1473033790... suggests that maybe we're talking about US$80k-US$130k per year for senior developers in India. Presumably that's post-doubling.

[AmIDev]

I am making 18LPA INR(23.5K USD), and just got an offer for 2x the amount(48K USD approx). I have an offer being negotiated with another one, and am expecting 1-2 more offers. I still have interviews lined up, and probably need to be more selective now to avoid interview burnout. I have <2 yoe.

This puts me in top 2% in India and top 5% in the world by income. While I am aware that I can get 4-5x this offer in US, I can't demand that offer here because 1. It's not trivial to immigrate to US, unless I am willing to spend 2 years on (another) Masters degree or spend many more on a PhD. 2. It's a supply demand issue, where at some point, they will be willing to hire someone else than pay me 4x more.

For now, I am hoping that after a few years, I'd be able to immigrate without having to first study in west, or having to take the huge financial risk of immigrating first and then looking for a job. If (political) shit hits the fan though, I might get desperate enough to try one of that option.

[harpratap]

With such high salaries I'm not sure if there's any place on earth other than SF that can come close to the standard of living you will live with $48k in Indian metro city.

[kragen]

Why SF?

If you're spending your money on healthcare, a cook, chauffeur, maid, and housing, then sure; you can probably get better healthcare than in the US if you pay for it. But as I said elsewhere, if what you're interested in is retiring in Costa Rica, buying a fleet of DJI drones, or buying a berth on Starship to Mars, US$48k is just US$48k. Or even clothes.

[kragen]

I hope that goes well! Thank you for enlightening me!

[durovo]

80-100k for 6-10 years of experience sounds about right. I have even seen cases of people earning around 80k at 3-4 YOE.

[wittycardio]

That's a massive sum of money in India tbh

[kragen]

I know, but when India exports rice it doesn't sell it at a tenth of the global rice price because "that's a massive sum of money in India tbh". Why should people exporting software engineering services settle for ten cents on the dollar? Because their neighbors are poor? Their neighbors will stay poor longer if they leave 90% of their potential export revenue on the table.

[wittycardio]

They shouldn't I'm fully pro people in India getting paid the same as the us. We are in fact seeing some equalization of salaries around the globe. Top talent is getting paid top dollar everywhere

[kragen]

I see! I still don't agree that US$130k/year is "top dollar" though.

[boesboes]

damm, I should move to India.. I am making a little over 50k (USD) with 12 years experience. In western europe.

[enigma20]

As far as I know, apartments in biggest cities are also very expensive. So if you don't inherit anything, and you are on your own, I'm not sure it's 48k is really that much?