[piva00]

US$150k is not only "decent" in high-income Western European cities (Paris, London, Amsterdam, etc.), it's a huge salary, usually in the top 5% of earners.

This expectation is why software development has become the neo-yuppies of the 2010s-2020s, people with overinflated expectations because they are keeping-up-with-the-Joneses from the internet being loud about their high salaries. Yes, there are people earning a lot in this industry but it's definitely not the norm outside of the inflated US salaries, the USA is the outlier.

[rednafi]

I literally don’t understand the rationale behind trying to bring down anyone aiming for a higher wage.

I live in Europe, and 150k isn’t a moonshot salary here. Just because something isn’t the norm doesn’t mean no one should try to achieve it.

Also, OP doesn’t live in Europe and clearly doesn’t care. So 200k is a reasonable ask there. American salaries aren’t outliers; they correspond to the cost of living. Being bitter about your own wage and trying to denigrate someone else isn’t helpful.

[piva00]

> Also, OP doesn’t live in Europe and clearly doesn’t care.

My point was to what I stated about European cities, not sure why you felt the need to state the obvious, refrain from strawman-ing, please.

> I literally don’t understand the rationale behind trying to bring down anyone aiming for a higher wage.

One can aim as much as they want but there's reality: that kind of wage is reserved for less than 5% of the population of already very rich countries, by definition it's not achievable by the majority, and having that as an expectation is bound to bring a lot of people feeling like failures because they can't achieve it. Keeping reality in mind is very good to not end up frustrated because you are earning a salary of 80k€ which is already more than 70-80%+ of what workers earn in the EU...

Aim for what you feel like while keeping in mind that, statistically speaking, you might not achieve it but can still have a very good life with less than that.