bigcothrowa

Yeah, me too. Taxes make it advantageous if you would value the additional free time. I'd happily scale to 4 days/week now for 80% (gross) pay.

It doesn't scale down like that.

I would include 401(k) or HSA matching under benefits (cash equivalent).

I think the important distinction is that the author claims to be discussing the low-end or at least middle, but your example is in fact significantly-better-than-average.

At my BigCorp employer, Senior Engineer starts at like, maybe $140k total compensation, on the low end. I don't know where the author is drawing these $250-350k minimum figures from, but it feels like "thin air."

That being said, a startup in my area would pay 50-70% as much.

$90k isn't unheard of in Seattle, either (that was my starting salary, in Seattle, 4 years ago). My alma mater published self-reported salary data and $80k was probably the median at the time. Granted, it was one of the best CS schools in the area.

Much of the east coast probably has >=$80k starting salaries as well. (Or at least, you'd expect the high salaries to be on the coasts.) Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.

Yeah, this is not the median or low-end compensation package profile OP thinks it is.

Yeah, that has not been my experience. I've worked for a big company for 4-ish years. Started 40% below article's suggested "middling" salary because I didn't negotiate (and starting salaries were 30% lower 4 years ago, apparently).

Negotiated a 40%(!) raise after 1.5 years because I was kicking ass and had +40% offers in hand(!) from other BigCo's that I interviewed at.

Since then I've been getting 2-3% cost-of-living raises annually. I would say my performance is above average, but that's my opinion.

Definitely not seeing 10% or $30k annual raises and my total pay is significantly below $250k still. Maybe I need to do another round of external interviewing again.

That being said, I like my work and have good benefits and really good compensation compared to non-tech work.