In Seattle it's not unreasonable for a senior software engineer with some good connections to be making 200-250k.
With that comes life insurance, health insurance for your whole family, disability insurance, etc.
That's more in cash AND benefits than a doctor.
The owners of these companies are the wealthiest people in the world.
BIG SIMPLIFICATIONS AHEAD
There are a lot of new software engineers popping up all the time, but very few ever reach a "senior" change, and a lot of them end up producing unmaintainable systems at companies, that sooner or later crumble. All at the same time, demand for good software engineers is growing and growing.
There are also an interesting effect I'm starting to see more often (in Berlin), that due to combination of high salaries and moderate living costs, which make saving up money possible, qualified engineers are (partially) leaving the workforce quite early, either by dropping to part-time or retiring early. This then further lowers the available supply, making salaries even higher, and it even easier to save up money. More of a hunch than a big observable effect right now, but I'm very interested in seeing how that plays out over the coming years.
And yet many of them still get the 'senior' title and role, and still end up producing unmaintainable systems. I've had to clean up after quite a few.
If you're in your mid 30s now, and are already making $300k+ (very doable if you're skilled and work for an established company), I don't see why you couldn't retire by the time you're 50 with $2M+ in the bank. Even if you choose not to retire fully, even taking jobs that drastically cut your income to under $100k a year should net you a very comfortable retirement with a nice buffer. Just don't buy a house in San Francisco.
"Total comp" vs "total cost" are different numbers as well - stock, 401k, etc all can add to the final numbers too, but $200-$250k seems a lot more in line with the top end numbers I'm familiar with.
Does the company make wildly more money than a doctor's practice?
That's why software companies make the big bucks; they're just about the only businesses around that can reliably scale superlinearly in inputs. People who can help you scale superlinearly in inputs are pretty darned valuable.
Depends a lot on specialty, but apparently within some specialties there's almost a 10× range of annual costs.
> I heard it was 6 figures.
For the highest cost specialty (OB/GYN), near or into the six figures range is right by the first source I find, and surgery specialities seem potentially to be in that range. Others much lower, down as low as four figures.
https://www.capson.com/medical-malpractice-insurance-by-spec...
No it isn't. You're comparing top-of-the-line tech comp to Joe Random Doctor. Surgeons make thousands of dollars per surgery. Busy surgeons do 5+ each day. That's 50-75K/week in a good week.
The thing you have to realize is you don't get to senior by coasting. You have to have a great education and then work at least 5-10 years. Doctor pay is higher because they have to go to medical school. So really I think the more relevant comparison is doctor vs. mid-career dev. It's still way lower, though.