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Comment by qntty | Hacker News Reader

Java, the language used to build Android apps, commanded the lowest compensation, at an average of $37,500.

Is this typical for Android development? I'm surprised there are very many software jobs out there with such low pay.

The fact that Java is used for Android doesn't mean these people were hired to make Android apps. It has many other uses.

It's more likely these people were hired into IT departments with legacy systems (and thus IT is treated as a cost-center, and they received lower salaries to minimize company costs).

I'm guessing they had a really low sample size, especially for some of the lower languages (objc/java). Most of the salary per langauge breakdowns i've seen rank mobile skills (android/iOS) nearly highest.

As an Android developer I'd say this is far from typical.

However the statement actually isn't saying anything about Android development salaries, just that the language is Java.

There are a lot of low paying Java jobs but Android is not one of them.

It wouldn't surprise me. Android apps sell less, are pirated more, and attract more 'free' users. Piracy is a problem with iOS apps as well, but there's far less money coming in overall for Android developers.

It also doesn't help that Java is one of the most widely 'known' languages since pretty much every CS major has been exposed to it for the last 15 years.

I'm immediately skeptical of any reports that put "piracy" anywhere in the top n list of problems for a platform. The great majority of people use the play store and buy their apps just like everyone else.

..Now whether it's a bogus perception, and the perception is causing people to eye the platform with suspicion, is a legitimate question. Correcting misinformation is hard.

Are you sure about that?

http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/05/monument-valley-developer-...

There's been a lot of criticism for that comment and it really shouldn't be taken without a large pinch of salt. For example, it didn't account for people buying it once and installing on more than one device. That's a pretty big oversight.

Much as I love ustwo, it was a stupid comment for that developer to make.

Yeah, "Java jobs" as a category is going to run from the kids coming out of schools in the Midwest and going to work at an insurance company in Omaha to senior devs at Google. That's a big range, and there're a lot of jobs at the bottom end of it to pull the average down.

Actually, in my (admittedly limited) experience, Android developers can charge a premium because more people want to be developing for iOS. But companies still need people to maintain their Android apps, so experienced Android devs are in short supply.

My guess is that the salaries here have absolutely nothing to do with Android and are more a reflection of the fact that Java is still the language of choice at large corporations which treat technology as a cost center.

Google just partnered with General Assembly to get more Android programmers [1] which is odd given the pay is so low. Does anyone know if the Android platform is considered "untapped" compared to Apple's? That's the only explanation I can come up with.

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/22/general-assembly-and-google...

Think of it in context of coding bootcamps. I imagine there's fewer for Android than say Rails, and that the production readiness may be lower.

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