[skeeter2020]

>> $170-180k a year, like an average-level senior software engineer in the US.

I hear things like this all the time, but outside of a few major centers it's just not the norm. And no companies are spending anything like $1k / month on remote work environments.

[nine_k]

I mean, it's at best an average-level senior engineer salary, not some exorbitant L6 Googler salary.

[shimman]

Median salary for a software engineer in the US is ~$133k:

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...

[flaminHotSpeedo]

I question their data if their p90 value is $211k

I recognize that not everyone makes big tech money, but that's somewhere between entry and mid level at anywhere that can conceivably be called big tech

[shimman]

You're right, better to get the self selected data from levels.fyi that mostly cater to 6 cities in the country. Way more accurate then!

You need to vacate your bubble pronto.

[flaminHotSpeedo]

You might want to review the commenting guidelines, notably the first few.

Like you mention, big tech gravitates to a handful of tech hubs across the US, which drives up salaries for every company in the area. Which is more data suggesting something is wrong with BLS' numbers.

My expectation (based on anecdotal/personal data - if you have better data I'd love to see it) is that the median developer in a tech hub makes more than an entry level big tech kid. So unless there's either an error, omission, or unexpected inclusion in the BLS data, the data implies that nearly all of big tech, plus ~50% of developers in tech hubs, accounts for about 10% of the workforce.

That doesn't make sense. What does seem plausible is that this data doesn't account for bonuses, options, RSUs, and the like, which would put big tech entry level jobs right around the median for developers. I'm not certain if that's the case, but it at least passes the sniff test.

[Izkata]

They can be the top 0.01% and it wouldn't change the top 10% number.

[wavemode]

Most companies, and most jobs, aren't in big tech / silicon valley.

[dboreham]

Salary data like this has to be interpreted by someone knowledgeable. Very often it becomes skewed or invalid in various ways. Source: close relative is a compensation analyst.

[sebmellen]

Define “senior engineer” though..

[dboreham]

People who do this for a living actually have such a definition.