I've noticed that, too -- the way the typical FAANG salary keeps going up and up and up and up and up and up and up whenever it's quoted here. I've been in Silicon Valley since 2002, always working for tech companies, either as a technical writer or a web developer, and I have never made anywhere near the "average salary" that HN tells me I should have been making.

Even granting that I'm not very good as a salary negotiator, I suspect an awful lot of software engineers, even out here, are making around $150-200K for their base pay, and are not getting another $100K+ annually in benefits and stock options.

Typical FAANG total comp for senior engineers in the bay area will be somewhere in the $300,000s, with moderate tenure (say 4+ years)

Of that, maybe 60% is salary, and the rest is bonus/stock/etc. The breakdown varies by company, and the non-salary comp is somewhat highly variable.

A senior new hire will be more like $250k

More junior folks will naturally make less.

Percentage of engineers, or senior engineers?

Overall, I'd guesstimate 40% make 400k or more, with most senior engineers making that much. Not at all atypical, particularly if you've been at one for a couple years.

So you're saying 40% of FAANG engineers (not just seniors, but all engineers) are pulling in 400k? That's nuts... I swear the number being thrown around for FAANG was ~250k not that long ago. Next time I check one of these threads it will be 500k....

250k is probably the average figure? Lots of L3s and L4s out there (more of them than L5 and above), who bring the average down.

$400k is pretty high for senior. Most senior FAANG engineers will be in the $300s somewhere, rather than north of $400k.

Is this really accurate? And even if total comp is somehow $400k, how much of that is equity, and how many senior engineers are liquidating it every year to get $400k in cash? That seems wildly overblown. And that equity shouldn’t be factored into the above breakdown anyway, at least not in the taxes calculation!

RSUs are not the same as private equity in a startup. While they are subject to market fluctuations they can be liquidated immediately on vesting (annually then frequently quarterly). They are taxed just like regular income... because they are regular income.

As to how many engineers are liquidating at vest? It’s honestly the most sensible option to diversify quickly since you don’t want your investment, savings and income all tied up in one company.

Equity is a whole lot of that. And yes, people liquidate it immediately. RSUs count as income.

I'd say most of the FAANG engineers I know cash out their RSUs when they vest, or within about a year or two after.

The point-in-time percentage isn't the best metric. These companies hire a huge number of recent grads each year, with sub-200k total comps. Need to look at expected 5+ year compensation to get a better picture.

Using FB as an example, engineers are expected to make it to E5 within a set time period (~5 years) or they're fired. So anyone still employed after that time is at least an E5. The E5 comp target is 330-400k. So yes, anyone still employed after 5/6 years is making at least that much.

Its not expected nor required to go beyond that, so that will be the career top for many. E6 is a 500-600k range, and I've no clue about E7-9.

Google is similar, and there are equivalent levels at Uber, Lyft, etc.

And then there's Netflix which only hires senior engineers and has a single level with a huge comp range. Pretty much 100% of Netflix enginners are making 300k+, most 400k+. But, Netflix is also an all cash shop - need to pay for benefits out of pocket, buy stock out of pocket, etc; so not 1:1 comparable to others.

Exactly this.

LOTS of grads do not make it to the $500K land. The FAANG companies have also been around a bit, so now google / facebook etc just have a fair number of more senior folks who are making good money. So pay is out of control but these companies make so much gross revenue (check out apple / google financials) that they can afford it.

Totally annoying if you are not in tech! And sometime you are like, do you really need to be spending x billion on comp to run y website?

> Wow, I swear every time I read one of these salary threads the "typical" salary for a FAANG engineer jumps by 50k.

Go look at the 2-year or 5-year stock charts of any of the FAANG companies and you'll see why.

An engineer who started working at a FAANG company several years ago got some RSU grants, and the value of the unvested shares grew a lot since then. On top of that, refresher grants every year or two are pretty common. Total compensation really ramps up after a few years even if you don't get promoted.

So are the RSU grants typically done as a fixed number of shares or is it adjusted based on how much those shares are worth on the market? For example, if the stock price tumbled would new offers be granted more shares to make up for the collapse in value to keep the overall compensation the same?

If the stock price collapses, many employees lose their homes.

Nobody knows what will happen when the inevitable finally happens.

Maybe the companies will step in and make employees mostly whole. Maybe they will have to in order to keep their best people.

Or maybe the gravy train will end.

L

All anyone can tell you for sure is that the companies will continue to pay what is required to get the people they need, and no more.

I'm sure it depends on the company, but my company grants a dollar amount and figures out how many shares add up to that amount. If the stock price tumbled I would get more shares next time I get a refresher grant, because more shares would be needed to add up to the dollar amount the company would grant me.