[rco8786]

Why? Because it’s higher than you’re used to seeing? You don’t even know what role that person was applying for. Is your position that 380k is just “too high”, period?

That number (or higher) has been the norm at a huge swath of stable and profitable tech companies for a decade+.

I am making an assumption that 380 is total comp and not base salary. I don’t believe that Coinbase is paying 380 base salary for any non-executive position.

[neill]

I asked what the role was in the comment you are replying to. Do you have data to back up the "huge swath" assertion? Certainly there are a few individual companies that have been able to provide specialized roles a $380k base salary, and companies who have been able to provide that and above on total comp thanks to an amazing run on equity value over the past 10 years. I don't think anyone is arguing that there are situations when this happens, that's not the point. It's irregular, it's naive to think that is the norm.

The OP specified salary- if they're referring to total comp, that'd be an important distinction for them to make in the future. Its anybodies guess what the actual value of equity in a total comp package will be a year from now. As an example, if you took a $380k TC package at Shopify 6 months ago and 40% of that was equity, it's now looking like $280k.

[rco8786]

OP has clarified that it’s total comp and not base salary, as I had assumed. This is absolutely not out of the norm for engineering compensation at publicly traded companies. Levels.fyi has all of that data readily available.

[htormey]

"I asked what the role was in the comment you are replying to. Do you have data to back up the "huge swath" assertion? Certainly there are a few individual companies that have been able to provide specialized roles a $380k base salary, and companies who have been able to provide that and above on total comp thanks to an amazing run on equity value over the past 10 years. I don't think anyone is arguing that there are situations when this happens, that's not the point. It's irregular, it's naive to think that is the norm."

It's basically what the salary looks like in the USA at a top tier company in a top tier city. Go look at https://www.levels.fyi/ for base salary excluding equity. Equity goes up by level.

As for this role, it sounds basically like a mid career engineers salary. i.e 5-12 years of relevant experience. Hard to know exactly because geography impacts salary bands at Coin.

I can't remember what HR tells us, but I think we are targeting pay for the top 25% of companies/engineers in the USA.

"The OP specified salary- if they're referring to total comp, that'd be an important distinction for them to make in the future."

I work at Coinbase, it's not salary, it's total comp. I'm assuming the OP was a bit confused. At least half that figure is equity.

"Its anybodies guess what the actual value of equity in a total comp package will be a year from now. As an example, if you took a $380k TC package at Shopify 6 months ago and 40% of that was equity, it's now looking like $280k."

As I mentioned earlier, each year Coinbase give you a new equity grant priced at the start of the year. I.e thirty day average, I believe.

So if the equity tanks one year, the next year you will be reset to 380k total comp. Assuming of course we are not in a multi year bear market and you don't get laid off, which is always a possibility in tech.

Also some companies, such as Netflix allow you to take a cash only salary that would be comparable to this.

[itsoktocry]

>Why? Because it’s higher than you’re used to seeing? You don’t even know what role that person was applying for. Is your position that 380k is just “too high”, period?

Perhaps because the company lost half a billion dollars last quarter and is in a controversial space facing regulatory scrutiny?

>That number (or higher) has been the norm at a huge swath of stable and profitable tech companies for a decade+.

Yeah, stable and profitable.

[matwood]

> Perhaps because the company lost half a billion dollars last quarter

So what? Last year COIN made $3.62B earnings. They may need to shift at some point, but I think it's incorrect to act like 1-2 bad quarters means a company should completely shift their plan. If anything, it's more important than ever to hire top people - which requires a decent salary.

[itsoktocry]

>If anything, it's more important than ever to hire top people - which requires a decent salary.

These are not "top people", they are average people. This isn't Lake Wobegon, where all the kids are above average.

>So what? Last year COIN made $3.62B earnings.

Only in Silicon Valley do people say "so what" to profits and quote revenue numbers. We're literally talking about high costs. Selling dimes for a nickel is simple, but not sustainable.

[matwood]

Not revenue. In 2021 COIN earned 3.62B profit on 7.84B revenue. People are acting like COIN is one of these companies that has never made money. Last year they had a $14.50 EPS.

2021 Fiscal Year https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/COIN/key-statistics?p=COIN

Of course past results are not indicative of the future, but in 2020 and 2021 COIN had positive earnings.

[phonon]

They actually made that in profits last year.

https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001679788/8e5e050...

[mdoms]

What do you mean, so what? Have you not read the article under discussion?

[matwood]

Sure, an article where COIN wasn't mentioned. Given that COIN made a profit in 2020 and a very large profit in 2021 it's hard to place it as a VC cash burning company.

COIN had a bad quarter and expects to have another. Are we seeing a shift away from crypto and tech or repricing which things will continue again? I think it's too soon to tell, hence my so what. COIN needs tighten up and plan for what's next. It doesn't mean they need to assume crypto is going to zero and the company is over - yet.

[htormey]

"Perhaps because the company lost half a billion dollars last quarter and is in a controversial space facing regulatory scrutiny?"

Wouldn't you expect people to be paid more for working in a risky space? Also, please not Coinbase just announced a hiring freeze.

https://blog.coinbase.com/employee-note-an-update-on-hiring-...

[arcticbull]

Even if they were paying it as cash, it's likely $300K base + 25% bonus target = $375K.

That's not insane for a staff engineer. A little high, but not impossible at any big tech company.