That really depends. Productivity differs between programmers with orders of magnitude. Assuming a career of 35 years, this programmer only grosses 1680000$. That is 6 zeroes. So, that would be a level-6 programmer. By programming Google Search, Sergey Brin and Larry Page produced half a trillion in value. That is 11 zeroes, corresponding to level 11. For example, if you can get a level 8 programmer to work at level 6 for you, you are into making truckloads of money. You could easily beef him up to level 7 and still be laughing all the way to the bank. But then again, most employers are not particularly working on level-8 subjects. I suspect that the problem is rather at that level than anywhere else; especially in France. What software worth mentioning have they ever built over there? Of course, they can't pay anybody anything. From what money would they be doing that anyway?