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Ask HN: Are programmers wages too low?

4 points by id122015 ↗ HN
I looked at highest paid programming jobs and what skills are required. I also looked at lowest paid programming jobs and what skills are required. And then I looked at middle level jobs.

I concluded that employers are "milking" all of them.

I'm not saying that being a business person and selling, besides being a programmers is easy. Actually we are on HN and that is encouraged. And I'm not implying that jobs should be as easy as they were during the dot com boom.

Wages are determined by demand and supply to some degree but also by people's behavior or policies. Maybe I lack the experience of being employed as a programmer, but when I read job descriptions including words such as "fast paced" it reminds me of those junk food shops. And when I read a dozen of technologies being required at Master level, it reminds me about those article about the Myth of the Full Stack Developer. And then there are those middlemen who inflate the number of jobs posted, making it seem like there is a huge demand.

At the existing wage levels, I think the companies should put the effort to hunt programmers, not the other way around, I've only applied for 2 programming jobs in my life; I want to hear your experience, especially if you work or have worked longer than 1 year as a programmer.

6 comments

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jackgolding
There certainly are a lot of people who do not earn how much they should earn as a developer. A part of that is the whole master vs management discussion that occurs on HN a lot - not many companies have the maturity, foresight or need to pay a developer $300k+.

There are a lot of developers who do not know all the technologies. Sure you do need to know A LOT to be able to operate in a startup, but if you are a .NET engineer at big co generally the job description will be to know 3 or 4 technologies. For example my last role was Python, SQL and basic front end development.

I've found that jobs aren't fair, I feel that tech guys build this resentment a lot towards analysts or coordinators who they feel don't pull the weight.

If you want to maximize your income (given you are a high performer), banking/law would be the best career choice over programming.

taway_1212
Be really awesome at whatever you specialty is (provided it's not something that has no business value at all) - and be able to prove it (through open source, books/talks, demoscene, robotics projects - whatever is appropriate in your field). That should easily enough put you in the $250k+ bracket.

Granted, I think that level of expertise may be achievable only by the gited, while the rest of us ordinary folks may have to accept our ordinariness and the meh salary and positions that come with it. Or, alternatively, go to an industry like finance, which pays a lot for just domain knowledge without neccessarily having to be an exceptional programmer.

zzzcpan
The supply of professionals is influenced by corporations and, well, capitalists so much, that it's almost impossible to have very well paid jobs lasting a long time.
a-saleh
Worked 3 years at the same company, begun with 20k pre tax, currently at 24k a year, pre tax. I tried to apply to another company in neighbouring country and they offered me 24k as well.

The thing is, median annual pre tax income is ~10k and my yearly rent with utilities for 50 sq meter flat is ~5k.

So, on one hand I keep thinking "Wow, my yearly rent would cover maybe a month in SanFran" on the other, "I know that there is someone in my company making 5 times as much for the same amount of work just because he lives someplace expensive."

So, I kinda find myself underpaid in comparison, but I have been on the other side of the hiring table as well, and I even I wanted to have as good colleague as possible, that wouldn't break our hiring budget at the same time

bkovacev
Where exactly are you from? Are you in Eastern Europe by any chance?
rajacombinator
Definitely, relative to the skill requirements and value created vs other professions.