It started to change when the salary cartel was busted.
I wonder to what extent the private “no poaching agreements” between major tech companies held down SW Engineer compensation.
Yep, my first year out of college (1998) I was making 50K at a local public tech company. Anyone in tech would laugh at that nowadays, but that was considered a "good" starting salary.
When I started at Microsoft in 2000 I believe my initial salary was 62k just as another reference plus some stock options (honestly I can't remember the details of that part). This was a very good comp package for a new college grad.
Re:Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit
by throwaway123467 on Sunday April 18, 2021 @01:54AM
(#26850131)
> Anyone in tech would laugh at that nowadays
There was a reset between then and now: The Great Recession around 2008. Starting salaries were below 50K, and I was really surprised when a few years later I got an offer at that amount (also right out of college) - I remember looking around for what to expect, and it was more like 35K.
That started to change in the dotcom frenzy but that was still a couple of years away at that point.