Do software engineering managers make more than software engineers? | Hacker News Reader

Do software engineering managers make more than software engineers?

16 pointsjamesmad912 comments

Here is a ratio for you (from personal experience). Yes, about 70% of the time. No, about 30% of the time. I am referring to annual base salary exclusively. When it comes to full package, the ratio looks more like 50/50.

Most likely, a manager will have a higher annual base salary versus lower RSU/stock grant. Again, this is not true all the time but RSU's are used in order to retain talents. Managers are very replaceable compared to experienced engineers. If you're easily replaceable but you have a lot more pressure, your annual salary will most likely be high and your RSU's will be good, not amazing.

When it comes to annual bonuses, managers win by far... I'd say it's a 80% to 20% ratio.

I think this varies wildly. I know if a few Rockstar managers that get paid higher than their individual contributors. If they have a proven track record of getting their team to perform and ship product.

Sure, which is why I used a ratio to describe the difference. There are indeed a lot of managers who make a lot more than their direct reports. It is not always true. Base salaries would most likely have a higher cap than IC’s, stock grants are based on how replaceable you are within the organisation, then annual bonuses are usually based on the company annual results, your business impact (and a percentage of your base salary) which is why managers usually get higher bonuses. I agree it varies a lot since not all companies offer RSU’s, annual bonuses, etc.

At FANGMA, yes - almost always. Managers typically has level either equal to or more than employee they manage. In addition, managers gets to make recommendations for bonuses for their directs. This by default make them at least as much paid as their directs. In a weird scenario it may be possible that manager gets dinged while he/she recommends better bonus for same leveled direct. However this is very rare because typically manager gets to claim at least partial credit for his/her direct and of course they are the ones with direct lines to higher up.

On a side note, this is a bad thing for industry because it makes lot of great ICs forced in to management.

A manager has hiring, firing and often budget responsibilities. Also over-looked other HR responsibilities like ensuring policies are being followed which are usually there because there are laws the company has to comply with, like sexual harassment. There is more risk to the larger company if a manager acts unethically or worse, illegally, with these responsibilities.

Given that a legal/ethical issue can potentially cost a company a lot of money, a good manager should be paid more in addition to other actual area of expertise responsibilities they have.

If they are more of a supervisor or team lead, literally managing workloads of people without the budget or hiring/firing HR responsibilities then maybe one could argue they may not necessarily make more than other Software Engineers.

No. Most cases, the first level engineering manager will make less than some of those being managed. One cause is experience, years, and wage growth. Another cause is high salaries for software engineers relative to the rest of the company.

Depends on company, experience etc. Where I am, no they don't and am glad they don't (I am a engineering manager).

From my experience an engineering manager in most organisations is considered a direct promotion from a senior or lead engineer. Compensation tends to follow this and thus I'd warrant in 90% plus of cases engineering managers make more than the engineers.

Usually but not always. Somtimes the manager is not technical, in which case they might be paid less (think Business Admin degree). Or you might have a superstar who needs to be paid well, but still needs to be managed.

Depends on the country as well. Here in Uruguay, 99% of the time they do, and usually several multiples of what their reports make.

Another related question might be how taking a manager vs engineer position may ease to access to future positions and earning levels.

Yes

Reply on news.ycombinator.com