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Comment by madcaptenor | Hacker News Reader

The post doesn't say. However, the one open job listing (https://apply.workable.com/whimsical/j/52B49C61AC/) says starting salary = $134,277 for a job described as "Senior Clojure Backend Developer - Remote". Senior = S5, from the post. We can derive from the post that S5 = S1 * 1.25^4.

134277/(1.25)^4 = 54999.8592 (exactly) so I assume S1 = $55,000.

It's kind of strange to phrase things in terms of this S1 value when they say nobody makes below S2. I guess the idea is that if they introduce lower levels they didn't want to force themselves into negative numbers.

The other baseline number they mention is E3 (the baseline equity) which is approximately equal to S3 = S1 * (1.25)^2 ~ $86k.

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Don’t work in tech for a living anymore so no real horse. But wow. Market entry level pay in Low low COL (like not SV or Boston) 20 years ago when I got a job - about 55k. And this was no Microsoft or Apple. I’m aware FAANG and some unicorn packages are better than ever - but the other “half”, wow wages have really stagnated. Half the blog posts on this of course are intellectualization of why this isn’t sad.

55k for a posistion that doesn't exist.

The junior engineer posistion would be ~$86k. That seems extremely high to me. I think you forget how many people live in poverty in the USA. I expect some people who run their own companies aren't even seeing that a year.

Tech wages in the US are hugely inflated compared to the rest of the world too.

> I think you forget how many people live in poverty in the USA.

FWIW, I work in public healthcare in Appalachia. In any event, I have no idea what the relevance of this statement is.

I made a statement of fact.. market wages for engineer/software types were in the 50s in the low COL areas 20 years ago - this can be verified - if they're not in the high 80s now then real wages have not grown.

Honestly, the OP comp might not be too too awful. Of course even then it shows wages haven't really skyrocketed either outside of FAANG. 86k - if that's base? - if that is $55k + "equity" then no - especially, they're not public and an 8 year vesting period! The longer vesting period is especially troublesome when you're not paying amazing wages to begin with - that's just how it is. Also, the problem with the bimodal distribution of wages in the US, if you're in that lower mode, you are kidding yourself if you can really maintain any realistic retention - there are too many opportunities for people to jump ship and it doesn't take much to make it worth their while. Another thing not covered by this post - how is their promotion structure? Sure the pay is transparent - but the vast majority of cases if you want a raise at the employer you're at - the best way to maximize it usually to quit and come back later.

Edit: looking at that table in the post and doing the math, looks like ~68k. Where do you get 86k from?

> Tech wages in the US are hugely inflated compared to the rest of the world too.

Sure, everyone knows this - well inflated not so sure - the market wages are higher. What's your point?

Edit: by low COL i mean, like Rust Belt, midwest.. as far removed from the coasts and SV as possible.

Using your numbers and their formulas, this is what I get:

    Base      Stocks     Total
  1 $55,000   $32,746    $87,746
  2 $68,750   $53,048    $121,798
  3 $85,938   $85,938    $171,875
  4 $107,422  $139,219   $246,641
  5 $134,277  $225,534   $359,812
  6 $167,847  $365,366   $533,212
  7 $209,808  $591,892   $801,701
  8 $262,260  $958,866   $1,221,126
  9 $327,826  $1,553,362 $1,881,188

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