[ghaff]

Inflation calculators aren't the whole story for specific comparisons. $40K was probably a pretty good salary for an engineer /software developer with the (mostly) necessary credentials and some level of experience in 1986. (That's about what I earned as a product manager for a computer company with prior work experience and two grad degrees at that time.) Software developer salaries in the US, especially on the West Coast, have largely outpaced other engineering salaries as well as professional compensation more broadly.