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Comment by brad0 | Hacker News Reader

I have to disagree with the high-paying work statement.

I moved from Melbourne to the USA because I hit a salary ceiling. Just over 100k AUD is not that much compared to west coast salaries.

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Depends on your skills of course, but most dev jobs on seek / I run into and hire for are paying quite a bit more than that, particularly contract. When the AUD was stronger than USD this was an even more compelling argument.

However I acknowledge the opportunities of equity returns are far higher in the states.

A quick Glassdoor search places 'senior software engineer' in Melbourne at 101k:

    https://www.glassdoor.com.au/Salaries/melbourne-senior-software-engineer-salary-SRCH_IL.0,9_IM965_KO10,34.htm

I agree with the parent commenter. I reached a salary cap around 5 years out of university and wasn't able to break it within Australia.

Yeah, mid-to-senior dev jobs in Melbourne and Sydney are going for $150k+ right now.

Do you have a reference? What industry, what technologies, what city? I find established businesses in Melbourne, paying permanent senior software devs $120k-$130k, so I find it hard to believe that mid-level developers are getting paid $150k+, unless they're contractors in a somewhat niche field.

Sydney, large tech company (100+ engineers), highly competitive. $150k for a senior dev sounds right.

This is if you want the top engineers who are getting offers from Google and Facebook.

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