5 ms·

Googler Builds Site That Shows You What Top Tech Companies Pay

75 points by Bartlet 15y ago

p4wnc6 15y ago
I stopped reading this entry at "Hunter S. Thomson." [sic]
the_grind 15y ago
The site is http://techcompanypay.com/ http://techcompanypay.com/ It is currently down.
- diegogomes 15y ago
  same here...
- hagbart_celine 15y ago
  i could reach it right now..
scrame 15y ago
> in the Vegas analogy I’m Hunter S. Thomson No, you are not.
- neworbit 15y ago
  Maybe for the drugs
Shengster 15y ago
I wonder if these estimates are calculated using overall compensation (which includes stock and bonuses) or base salary? Does anyone know?
- Joakal 15y ago
  Article mentions that it's likely H1B wages. I suppose that's base salary, not including stocks and bonuses?
- sgk284 15y ago
  From my personal experience, it has to be base. Those numbers are way too low to be total comp.
icode 15y ago
Im not from the USA, so I wonder what "Twitter paying $120K on average" actually means. After Taxes etc, how much of what the company pays will end up in the employees pocket to actually buy sutff?
- roel_v 15y ago
  In the major urban areas (Cali, NY) about 50% (with quite a big margin - more correct would be 'between 40 and 55%), excluding health care insurance. (I'm not in the US but I have an academic interest in comparative tax pressures, and that of the US comes up quite often).
  - kokey 15y ago
    Where do you think are hot spots with a good supply of tech jobs, where taxes on the individual is low and rent is not very high?
    - bretthoerner 15y ago
      Austin, TX.
      - jhugg 15y ago
        Not sure he meant a literal hot spot.
      - mattdeboard 15y ago
        Indianapolis, IN
rorrr 15y ago
If it's based on H1B datasets, it's mostly incorrect. H1B salaries are definitely lower than what US citizens get (on average).
- savagecat 15y ago
  H1B salaries are higher than what US citizens get (on average). Show me a company than actually pays what H1B claims and I'll show you a company that has people lined up at the front door every morning wanting to get hired.
- larsberg 15y ago
  Possibly true, though for the same position it will be the same pay. Having managed H1B employees, every year I was required to fill out a bunch of paperwork confirming that I was not underpaying them for their work relative to their peers. We were fairly rigorous about this. That said, you're only on an H1B visa until you get your green card. By which point, you've gone through several promotions and are finally leaving the junior engineer position. I would also expect H1B numbers to be skewed lower for this reason. If people really want to know what the salaries are at other companies, they should just make friends with their generalist. Big company HR orgs pay third parties to do more stastically rigorous surveys of salaries by position and use that to determine how "not to overpay."
  - rorrr 15y ago
    My relatives went through the H1B process. I know exactly how employers treat them. They understand that you're tied to them, and even though you could transfer, it resets your greencard process. My father was making less money than the people under him, even though he was the chief engineer (vs regular engineers).
dsolomon 15y ago
H1B salaries are generally higher. Perhaps they are confusing billing rate with salary rate.
nopal 15y ago
The salary listed for my position at my company is 27k less than I make. I'm not sure if these numbers accurately reflect the true average salary of all employees. I find it very hard to believe that my salary is that much higher than average.
ecaron 15y ago
The problem with all salary sites (Payscale.com, Salary.com, Glassdoor.com) is the reliability of the data that they're pulling from. They all make such gross exaggerations and generalizations of salaries across locales, industries and titles that I'm sure you could reduce an entry-level statistician to tears. Given that this site is based on "open sources of information publicly available to anyone on the internet," I think it is just a rehashing of the same, polluted information that's plagued salary discussions for a decade. I had initially hoped that, coming from a Googler, there'd be some new intelligence brought to organizing and interpreting the data. No such luck. The best source of accurate salary discussions still comes from sites like http://salaryshare.me/ http://salaryshare.me/ (previously discussed on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2441888 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2441888)

75 points by Bartlet 15y ago

p4wnc6 15y ago

I stopped reading this entry at "Hunter S. Thomson." [sic]

the_grind 15y ago

The site is http://techcompanypay.com/ http://techcompanypay.com/ It is currently down.

diegogomes 15y ago
same here...
hagbart_celine 15y ago
i could reach it right now..

scrame 15y ago

> in the Vegas analogy I’m Hunter S. Thomson No, you are not.

neworbit 15y ago
Maybe for the drugs

Shengster 15y ago

I wonder if these estimates are calculated using overall compensation (which includes stock and bonuses) or base salary? Does anyone know?

Joakal 15y ago
Article mentions that it's likely H1B wages. I suppose that's base salary, not including stocks and bonuses?
sgk284 15y ago
From my personal experience, it has to be base. Those numbers are way too low to be total comp.

icode 15y ago

Im not from the USA, so I wonder what "Twitter paying $120K on average" actually means. After Taxes etc, how much of what the company pays will end up in the employees pocket to actually buy sutff?

roel_v 15y ago
In the major urban areas (Cali, NY) about 50% (with quite a big margin - more correct would be 'between 40 and 55%), excluding health care insurance. (I'm not in the US but I have an academic interest in comparative tax pressures, and that of the US comes up quite often).
- kokey 15y ago
  Where do you think are hot spots with a good supply of tech jobs, where taxes on the individual is low and rent is not very high?
  - bretthoerner 15y ago
    Austin, TX.
    - jhugg 15y ago
      Not sure he meant a literal hot spot.
    - mattdeboard 15y ago
      Indianapolis, IN

rorrr 15y ago

If it's based on H1B datasets, it's mostly incorrect. H1B salaries are definitely lower than what US citizens get (on average).

savagecat 15y ago
H1B salaries are higher than what US citizens get (on average). Show me a company than actually pays what H1B claims and I'll show you a company that has people lined up at the front door every morning wanting to get hired.
larsberg 15y ago
Possibly true, though for the same position it will be the same pay. Having managed H1B employees, every year I was required to fill out a bunch of paperwork confirming that I was not underpaying them for their work relative to their peers. We were fairly rigorous about this. That said, you're only on an H1B visa until you get your green card. By which point, you've gone through several promotions and are finally leaving the junior engineer position. I would also expect H1B numbers to be skewed lower for this reason. If people really want to know what the salaries are at other companies, they should just make friends with their generalist. Big company HR orgs pay third parties to do more stastically rigorous surveys of salaries by position and use that to determine how "not to overpay."
- rorrr 15y ago
  My relatives went through the H1B process. I know exactly how employers treat them. They understand that you're tied to them, and even though you could transfer, it resets your greencard process. My father was making less money than the people under him, even though he was the chief engineer (vs regular engineers).

dsolomon 15y ago

H1B salaries are generally higher. Perhaps they are confusing billing rate with salary rate.

nopal 15y ago

The salary listed for my position at my company is 27k less than I make. I'm not sure if these numbers accurately reflect the true average salary of all employees. I find it very hard to believe that my salary is that much higher than average.

ecaron 15y ago

The problem with all salary sites (Payscale.com, Salary.com, Glassdoor.com) is the reliability of the data that they're pulling from. They all make such gross exaggerations and generalizations of salaries across locales, industries and titles that I'm sure you could reduce an entry-level statistician to tears. Given that this site is based on "open sources of information publicly available to anyone on the internet," I think it is just a rehashing of the same, polluted information that's plagued salary discussions for a decade. I had initially hoped that, coming from a Googler, there'd be some new intelligence brought to organizing and interpreting the data. No such luck. The best source of accurate salary discussions still comes from sites like http://salaryshare.me/ http://salaryshare.me/ (previously discussed on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2441888 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2441888)