Ask HN: What are Developer' Salaries supposed to be before taxes? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are Developer' Salaries supposed to be before taxes?

3 pointsthrown_away1232 comments

I have been doing a lot of research as far as figuring out what I am worth as far as a developer.

One area that I feel like I have made a huge mistake in my professional career is that I accepted a salary without realizing that the salary offered was not the base salary. Based on the research then, $65K for a junior developer with previous experious in Southern Calofornia sounded right and I went with it.

It is only after a couple of years with no career progression, no feedback, and no raise that I am realizing that I didn't understand the offer.

Is it the case that when a salary is generated on a website like Glassdoor that they are referring to take home pay? Because, if that is the case, I have screwed myself out of more money than I expected.

I didn't get into this career for the money; I love it, I am good at it, and I only want to get better. However, I feel like I let myself get taken advantage of.

Are my expectations unrealistic? I am leaving the company due to lack of career growth and I want to get it right this time.

Thanks.

Generally when people use their total pre-tax income when answering annual income in surveys. That pay might include a base pay plus bonuses. I suspect that most people include bonuses when reporting compensation. However, I suspect that many do not include things like stock options or grants when reporting total annual income.

The separate question of whether you are being taken advantage of is very contextual. Relevant questions include:

Is my salary not improving even though my skills and domain knowledge are dramatically different?

How does my salary compare to other developers at other companies in my city/state/region with similar skills, experience and responsibilities?

How does my salary compare to other developers and/or other roles within my own company - is their evidence that it is unfair?

Compensation information at the appropriate level of specificity [role, training, skills, domain knowledge, location, industry and company size] is rarely available at all to individuals at least at a reasonable cost. Sometimes it is available through HR benchmarking companies that sell the information to employers.

This information asymmetry tends to give negotiating advantage to the employer.

Generally income data is pre-tax, not take home; and, BTW, without benefits like vacation, health care factored into the number - but in practical terms they do make a difference. Learn to do your own pre/post tax calculations. Account for life balance like schedule and commute time too.

No raise == slow decline in pay. Inflation now means around a 2% paycut if it is not compensated. Personally, it's a really bad indicator if a company doesn't at least keep up with inflation.

Early in your career, you generally should expect more frequent and larger pay bumps. It's cheaper to give a junior dev a pay bump than senior devs, and they're generally on a good learning curve to improve the value they provide to the company. If that's not happening, then it's very normal to do thing to preserve your own career growth and look for new opportunities.

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