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Comment by meindnoch | Hacker News Reader

That's about 1 year's worth of salary of a full-time dev.

According to their financial statement, the Zig Foundation pays contributors $60/hr, and spent $154K on their single employee (Andrew Kelley) in 2024.

So that's around 3-4+ years of development.

(Also, that $154K might include significant employer expenses not typically included in salary, like, e.g. healthcare.)

https://ziglang.org/news/2025-financials/

Where can I get a $512k a year salary job?

Keep in mind the rule of thumb that a employee costs twice their salary, so that would be a 206k/year salary. Generous for some, low for others. The salary spread in the US is crazy.

Where does it say that an employee costs twice their salary? My experience is more like 25-30% more.

At these salary levels it might very well be closer to 25%, there's only so much fancy health insurance and 401k matching and other tax/fees you have to cover as an employer.

At a more "normal" salary the 1.5-2x figure is pretty accurate in my experience.

There is no universe where overhead is $206k for a $206k employee. Taxes are about 13% employer paid in the worst case. Health insurance is $1500-$2000 a month worse case.

The idea an employer has $17,000 in taxes they pay and overhead for an employer is absurd.

I will work for 5 Yeats for 500k

More like 1 month. I'd even say it's a week for a competent one, and maybe a day for a 10x developer. These days it'll pay for maybe one hour of a HRT or Jane Street intern and maybe a few seconds of someone at renowned AI lab Cluely.

No, it’s not.

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