i assume it means an above median annual salary but a very poor hourly rate. usually these discussions omit a calculation of to what extent the engineers took the job knowing this already and still decided to do so of their own free will, and how much is... not so voluntary.

I think it's the converse of the idiom "working for peanuts", which means to make a relatively small salary (see https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/work+for+peanuts)

Yes, but I don’t think that’s accurate in this case. Unless the “relatively” part is crafted to be an unreasonably narrow comparison group.

True. From blind, I think it matches average startup pay. However, that does not account for the fact that most people work very long hours. My brother started off with 80 hours weeks and then came down to 60 hour weeks when he got into his groove at tesla. So when you account for that, it is 33% below average startup pay (assuming other companies are doing 40) which itself is below big tech pay.

I don’t think other companies are doing 40. In fact, I don’t know anyone making six figures that does 40. (I’m not saying no such jobs exist, just that no one I know works in one of them.

If other high end software jobs are paying the same for 45-50 that Tesla is paying for 60, that’s on the low side hourly, but the low side of the high end.

75% (45/60) of 150k is still $112.5k plus presumably good benefits and some sort of equity component. That’s damn fine compensation for someone fresh out of undergrad even in 2018.

I wouldn’t want to work 60 indefinitely even for great pay, but that’s a separate issue.

> I don’t think other companies are doing 40.

Maybe I am just lucky but I have worked for 2 of the major big tech companies and came out of college making 100k+ while primarily working 40 hour weeks at both.

> 75% (45/60) of 150k

Tesla new grad software engineer total comp is 150k? Damn, in that case they are pretty close with big tech (amazon is 145k and G/FB is 165k from what I have heard). I assumed it was lower since my brother was a PM with 6 YOE and got payed 130k a year.

> That’s damn fine compensation for someone fresh out of undergrad even in 2018.

Oh totally, my girlfriend is probably going to make like 60k out of grad school. However, while it is much better than anyone besides what my finance friends are making, that does not mean they are paying well relative to the tech industry.

Sorry if I was being unclear. I have no inside knowledge and just wanted to throw some numbers out there so we didn't continue to talk past each other. If Tesla is paying $120k to fresh CS grads and expecting them to work 60 hour weeks, I'm still not sure I'd say they were "paying peanuts" but it's at least getting there.