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Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by jaxn on Thursday July 14, 2011 @01:57PM (#2764154)
If you look at how salaries are distributed across the US public, the 60k - 100k category is way too large while 151k-200k should probably be just one range and not two.

As someone who hires programmers, I am much more interested in how many people make between 60-70, 70-85, and 85-100.

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by sshumaker on Thursday July 14, 2011 @06:50PM (#2765509)
Interesting. When doing hiring, I've always mentally divided developers into different categories than you've been suggesting: - 65k (entry-level) - under 100k (intermediate, or junior with a lot of promise) - 100-125 - most of my hires have been in this range - mid-level, talented, solid programmers - 150k+ - 'lead' / superstar level. It's very rare to find candidates that meet this level.

Beyond 150-200k range, most of the compensation tends to come from bonuses, stock, and options - which can vastly exceed base salary.

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by skrebbel on Friday July 15, 2011 @05:17AM (#2766767)
I'm amazed at what people in the US earn. Seems like the Netherlands is a developing country after all.

I'm rather certain that my employer rates me in at least what you describe as the "under 100k" range, but I earn 40k euros per year.

Do you guys all go on holidays to Latin America 3x per year? And have six broadscreen TVs? And villas with seaside views?

Or is a 1 liter bottle of coke just also 10$ in the US?

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by tripzilch on Saturday July 16, 2011 @03:35AM (#2770346)
hee skrebbel! :D

see this http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/7413/2008usincomedistribu...

I had to massage a whole bunch of numbers from bls.gov to get this histogram (huge list of annual income per county per occupation group), it's not exactly the kind of data they like to publish :)

Of course this is 2008, mostly before the recession. Would be interesting to see if they got new data and how it changed.

And this is for all occupation groups, computer programmers are of course on the higher end of this graph.

And yeah, depending on where you are in the US, things you'd expect to be cheap in the supermarkets here generally tend to be a bit more expensive. Also because they always list the prices excluding VAT [in most states]. If they list the prices correctly, or at all. And actually charge you the same amount at the checkout. Outside of supermarkets, prices seem reasonable, until you find you need to pay 15-20% in tips because waiting staff doesn't get minimum wage [in most states] and it's up to the customers to make sure they don't starve. So yeah, not very developed after all :-) [also: healthcare. unless you're rich you get none. half the people on the street walk around with visible ailments of some kind. but I'm getting OT]

A bottle of coke, however, is much, much cheaper than over here. Also, bigger.

groetjes

- ritz

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by drinian on Saturday July 16, 2011 @12:59PM (#2771104)
What rights do you have as an employee? Vacation time, maternity leave, severance pay?

In the US, these things are not mandatory. Good employers (like mine) are relatively generous, but not like what I've heard in Europe.

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by BrandonM on Friday July 15, 2011 @12:47PM (#2768083)
A 1 liter bottle of coke is about $1.50-2. Some people do have several large screen TVs. Mostly, though, college education is really expensive, minimum wage is comparatively low, medical coverage isn't nationalized, and debt is (or at least used to be) easy to acquire.

In other words, it's easy to come out of college with $50-100K in student loans. It's also easy to get a major injury without medical insurance, pay $10K out of pocket to rectify it, and rack up another $10-15K by living on credit for a year.

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by BrandonM on Friday July 15, 2011 @03:39PM (#2768767)
Paying a student loan of $60K over 25 years at 3.5% interest is $300 per month. Paying the medical bills of $10K over 2 years at 0% interest is $415 per month. Paying the credit card bills of $15K over 5 years at 14% interest is $350 per month. Ugh... $1K in debt payment alone.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by burgerbrain on Friday July 15, 2011 @02:53PM (#2768585)
As I understand it, Americans actually get/take far less vacation than Europeans. Couple that with comparatively no social services and this should start to make sense.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by almightygod on Thursday July 14, 2011 @02:05PM (#2764206)
I think it adds value but I have also created a richer survey here (https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey...)

The raw anonymous results will be shared on HN in a few days w/analysis.

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by redthrowaway on Thursday July 14, 2011 @05:49PM (#2765312)
That's an interesting language stack you've displayed. You have Obj-C but not C/C++... From your selection, I'd guess you're either a web or mobile app dev?
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by dmooney1 on Thursday July 14, 2011 @04:08PM (#2764832)
C++ is an 'Other' language? I am feeling really, really unhip.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by AretNCarlsen on Thursday July 14, 2011 @06:27PM (#2765440)
It is not. Taking the liberty of grouping C with C++, you get the most popular language in existence.

http://langpop.com

http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index....

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by chc on Thursday July 14, 2011 @09:55PM (#2765984)
You could group Perl with C and get the most popular language in existence. C is just that popular.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by code_devil on Thursday July 14, 2011 @02:48PM (#2764409)
You might want to add "Technology/Industry" like Web Companies(FB,Twitter), App Companies(Built on Top of FB, Twitter), Mobile Companies, Networking (Cisco, Juniper), DB/related (Oracle), OS(Apple, MSFT).

I "get" the feeling that programmers in Web technologies get paid less than people in hardware/appliance companies like Cisco, Juniper, NetApp etc.

Edit: Just noticed the Industry Option :)

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by nl on Thursday July 14, 2011 @07:05PM (#2765563)
Hardware (as in embedded programming) actually pays pretty badly compared to web programming (although I expect Cisco/Juniper are exceptions).
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by X-Istence on Friday July 15, 2011 @03:44AM (#2766608)
Depends on what field you are in with embedded programming. I know a few people that work on embedded hardware such as microwaves, fridges and whatnot that make 100,000+ a year.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by bstx on Thursday July 14, 2011 @03:25PM (#2764610)
How about a seniority/years of experience field?
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by Produce on Thursday July 14, 2011 @05:24PM (#2765196)
I agree that this is a good thing to add to the poll but I've always had a funny feeling about the importance of experience in programming. Some people learn faster than others and can get 10 years' worth of (average) experience in 5. I think that a more accurate metric would be to find out how many different situations, defined as working with different platforms, languages, markets and libraries, a person has been in. This would probably need to be coupled with the person's IQ to guesstimate how much they gain from each change.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by thomas11 on Friday July 15, 2011 @04:08AM (#2766653)
It doesn't say whether you're supposed to give gross or net income. Can make a huge difference when comparing countries or even states.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by smackfu on Thursday July 14, 2011 @02:07PM (#2764211)
May want to clarify what domain means in order to get useful values for that.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by almightygod on Thursday July 14, 2011 @02:16PM (#2764258)
yep - changed to industry
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by mendocino on Thursday July 14, 2011 @02:19PM (#2764277)
The buckets might have a Valley bias. It seems the only programmers at SV companies that make less than 100k these days are interns.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by sukuriant on Thursday July 14, 2011 @02:58PM (#2764468)
Actually, this is a serious consideration. Location greatly affects pay, as cost of living changes. For example, it's substantially more expensive to live in Silicon Valley than it is to live in Cocoa Beach, FL or Seattle, WA
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by dasil003 on Thursday July 14, 2011 @03:44PM (#2764691)
On the other hand London is more expensive than Silicon Valley and salaries are much lower. The correlation to cost of living is loose at best. In the case of Silicon Valley I'm convinced it's actually the tech money that raises the cost of living.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by scythe on Thursday July 14, 2011 @04:38PM (#2764988)
Salaries in Britain are in general lower than the US, especially as measured by purchasing power parity; the difference is about 30%. This is recouped in theory by the increased services provided by the British government (e.g. NHS and the Dole).

On the other hand, New York is more expensive than the Valley and salaries are, IIRC, even higher.

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by gopi on Thursday July 14, 2011 @05:16PM (#2765156)
Actually this is a big misconception in UK/Europe. Unless you are a independent software contractor you get insurance thro your company in US. So the salary posted here excludes the benefits (insurance, vacation, 401k etc)...

IMO, with lesser US taxes & cost of living the US software programmer makes atleast twice than that of his eurpoean counterpart!

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by X-Istence on Friday July 15, 2011 @03:45AM (#2766612)
Even if you get it through your company sometimes, if not most of the time the employee is required to put in Y out of X amount where X is the amount of the plan.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by code_devil on Thursday July 14, 2011 @04:11PM (#2764856)
Also it might have a bias towards Web/Mobile Apps. So, I created another poll to verify that.

http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=2764570

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by thebandrews on Thursday July 14, 2011 @08:33PM (#2765806)
I would agree. The company I work for gives a 25% boost in pay just for relocating to the SV branch from other branches. This is merely a cost of living bump for the exact same job title.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by arcdrag on Thursday July 14, 2011 @04:34PM (#2764967)
Agreed. 100k is a tech-lead salary in St. Louis area...but houses can be bought for under 100k so I guess it balances out.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by kstenerud on Thursday July 14, 2011 @03:30PM (#2764629)
And founders
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by smackfu on Thursday July 14, 2011 @02:04PM (#2764198)
Unevenly sized buckets give weird data anyways. How would you show it on a graph? The buckets should be uniform, except for catch-alls at the ends, then you choose how to display them afterwards.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by lojack on Thursday July 14, 2011 @02:37PM (#2764361)
> How would you show it on a graph?

A relative frequency density histogram

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by eru on Thursday July 14, 2011 @04:06PM (#2764818)
You could argue for uniformity in the logarithmic domain just as well.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by fhars on Thursday July 14, 2011 @04:54PM (#2765053)
But the buckets in the poll are even more ubequal on a logarithmic scale than on a linear scale.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by eru on Thursday July 14, 2011 @05:13PM (#2765139)
Yes. Logarithmic was just an example.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by jules on Thursday July 14, 2011 @06:30PM (#2765449)
Mathematically you're right that every choice of buckets is arbitrary. But with same size buckets it is easier for humans to see what's going on.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by graywh on Thursday July 14, 2011 @11:14PM (#2766138)
Statistically speaking, using buckets is like throwing away 1/3 to 1/2 of your data. There was a salary survey on here a couple of months ago.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by MrKurtHaeusler on Thursday July 14, 2011 @03:58PM (#2764776)
Heh I read that as "as someone who pays developers, I am much more interested in the low end, or at least believing that most developers are that cheap"
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by jaxn on Thursday July 14, 2011 @04:31PM (#2764947)
Maybe I should have been specific and said that I am a developer who is now the founder. I pay well above average, but I hire people who earn it.

Still, as the company grows, there will be a need for more junior developers. In our market (Nashville, TN) many senior developers still make less than $100k while some make $60k fresh out of school. As I look at how the poll numbers play out, I suspect that is true for most markets and not just mine. That is why I say the range is too big.

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by dkokelley on Thursday July 14, 2011 @05:22PM (#2765187)
That's not a fair reinterpretation. The parent hires for positions that pay <$100k. It's fair that he/she would be more interested for fine degrees of scale at the general range the company hires for.
Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by vu0tran on Thursday July 14, 2011 @02:05PM (#2764203)
I'm also very interested in this.

Can somebody else make a poll with ranges 50-59,60-69,70-79,80-89,90-100?

My karma's too low :(

Re:Poll: How much do you make as a programmer? by thebandrews on Thursday July 14, 2011 @03:46PM (#2764709)
What about an unemployed category?