Ask HN: Why is it so hard for someone in India to get a $100K Dev job?
While dev salaries are hitting the roof in the US and similar places, it's super hard to find a job someone living in India to get $100K salary even with the same talent ?
While pure coding talent may be on par, unless you are a solo dev you must be part of a team. Therefore communication skills are more than half the job. This is vastly underweighted by IT folks in general, and by gross stereotype, by the graduates of Indian technical schools.
An American company might be willing to hire someone, but it takes tremendous work to recruit, train, retain, and manage an employee. Especially at 12 hours time difference. So those are real costs. And this is why you rarely see "real" cost savings from outsourcing IT functions.
With 12 hours time difference, it is better to have separate team in India who can colloborate with offshore team on bi/weekly basis.
Indians who can get a visa or immigrate to the US can of course make as much as anyone else with the legal right to work in the US.
As another comment mentioned, working as a member of a team and communications skills come into it, as does the time difference. Indian English is not the same as American English, so communication problems and misunderstandings come up. Many employers are not set up to sponsor visas, or don’t want the hassle of paying remote foreigners. The big tech companies that do sponsor visas and have outsourced teams can take their pick and set the prices.
Turn the question around: Why is it super hard for someone living in Nigeria to get a good-paying programmer job in India?
edit: SFHUD's low income definition for a 4 person family is $149,100 now
The problem is, at $50K/year, you are not getting your money's worth. If you were paying this in France, it might acceptable. But in India? You are much better spending these $50k/year in the UAE for private health care, condo and private schools. This should explain the big number of software development shops in the UAE who are employing Indians. The flip doesn't even start at $100k/year; and I suspect, at that amount, the UAE might not be that attractive.
Of course India is losing (both money, and talent) because of this. But not-taxing the "rich" will be an unpopular measure.
Assuming you’re kinda referring about yourself, it seems the Indian GDP cannot sustain that level of pay.
For instance the effective minimum wage in NYC is $20/hr+, whereas in Mumbai it’s $150/month (quick search, don’t hold me to this).
India still has quite a ways to go in development before the standard of living improves. AFAIK, millions in India get diseases from pooping/peeing on the street. Got to address the basics before $100k is standard