I mention above Netflix pays Senior Software Engineers over $350k/yr. This is far above anything any other company does by a wide margin. I'm not sure how much Google or Facebook employees make, but are they really making upwards of $400k/yr total comp?

An argument I've heard against this is that stock (etc.) is a way to give delayed money; it depends on you being locked in, the company not tanking, etc. The "equivalent" money now is more valuable. I'd love to hear a refutation of that, along with what these salaries are.

Yes, principle of time value of money says you need to discount future money. But deferred compensation is also deferred tax and it can be very useful to be able to reduce/avoid a big tax bill.

Actual dollars? Sr Engineer base pay at $175k+. Mid level at 135k. There are plenty of formerly middle class engineers making over $300k a year including equity. People often discount startup equity while overlooking the very lucrative large tech company equity. (Fb, goog, etc). My source for this is both friends and hiring in this market.

To be sure not every eng in sfba is paid this amount. But they probably could be if they were willing to optimize for comp.

I want to second this about netflix. They pay the same total, but have different requirements.