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Comment by ashelmire | Hacker News Reader

> If these are all "senior engineers" that "Google is trying to retain", the cost of keeping them must be at least 50 million per year.

Wait uh... are you saying seniors at Google make an average of $500k?

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That seems like a low estimate of the cost of a senior SWE at Google. They probably earn at least 400k in cash + bonus + stock, and there are employer costs beyond that (office space, benefits, payroll taxes).

Glassdoor has avg total comp for senior swes at google at 193k...

I am very surprised if that's the case.

For what it's worth, I just started at Google as a Senior SWE this summer. My base is in the 180s. With an average annual bonus, my moving/starting bonus, and stock grant (ignoring stock price movements), my first four years should be 400ish...very high 300s really.

BTW, https://www.levels.fyi/ is another source of data which might prove useful

190 total comp is more in line with what I expect for an early career person. Welcome to 2018 tech company salaries.

That's a pretty great package... brb applying to work at Google.

That is definitely not correct.

Senior engineer can either mean "an engineer with a significant amount of experience" or "a title for a specific position at a specific company".

Either way based on my experience as a manager at Google, the answer to your question is yes.

Yes -- https://danluu.com/startup-tradeoffs/ cites $250k as a "conservative" (low) estimate for a senior SWE there, and was written in 2015.

Salary is usually only 2/3 of the cost of an employee. Benefits and overhead are a big part.

Must be the first law of HN: Every thread devolves into a discussion of $1mn+ engineer salaries ;)

Some do. If you add bonuses and stock grands it can get to at least half a million per year

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