And there are hundreds of companies that pay at that level in the US, not just FAANG.
Reality is European workers are under-paid, not US workers over-paid.
Also curious what you think is different in Australia? Are software salaries there like in the US and above somewhere like London?
My point was that European workers are paid in proportion to how they are valued by their employer. If they wrote transformational software their employer wouldn't understand its value and it would either just be shipped without a lot of thought, or ignored. Come to think of it this may be why so much great open source software comes out of Europe.
If European companies threatened by the digital transition realized their looming doom and actually decided to do something about it, the salaries would rise as a consequence.
Not very familiar with Australia. But thinking that high paying company like Atlassian which produces a very crappy software which I unfortunately deal daily. To me it shows high pay does not guarantee good quality software which many(not you) seems to be arguing here.
That's a different problem. That's because you, the user, are not a customer of Atlassian. Companies and their micromanagers, however, love JIRA.
Microsoft is in the same boat. Virtually no users of their products are actually their customers.
That's how you get away with producing very crappy software, even if you hire the top talent.
Such a weird logic. You’re saying that Microsoft produces crappy software even though they hire too talent. And they get away with it because the people who buy it don’t use it (i.e. by extension don’t care if they’re spending their money wisely)?
What's wise for the management isn't necessarily wise for end-users.
You can buy a product that's great for your business needs, that the users will absolutely hate. Both of those things can be true at the same time.
Apple has less than 10% of the PC market. What do you think the rest of them are running?
If you didn't pay for your copy of Windows (which you most likely didn't, far more likely it was provided to you in another way, such as OEM or your employer), you are not Microsoft's customer.
Likewise, if you got the free license from upgrading, you're also not their customer.
Pirated Windows? Not their customer.
Bought one of those $20 license keys? Still not their customer.
Actually bought a Windows key directly from them? Okay, you're their customer. You're in the minority.
I certainly don't agree with your definition of a customer. People who buy a PC with a Windows OS on it know it's a Windows OS, and make that choice willingly. It's like pretending nobody is an Android customer because they buy their phones from Samsung not Google.
If you use Microsoft products you are their customer.
Splitting hairs is a bit silly
Microsoft was taken by surprise by the “BYO movement”
They did still eventually address the root cause with WSL/WSL2.
IT chose it, eng can't seem to object.
They are. Most US "innovative competitive startups" are losing hundreds of millions, and often billions of dollars a year, for decades.
Europe (thankfully) doesn't want to do that. And "grossly underpaid software developers" enjoy a high quality of life on par with the rest of the population (universal healthcare, extended parental leave, vacations etc.)
That isn’t actually true. A few certainly are, and they make great press fodder. But most don’t have that luxury. Actually it’s a burden: you suffer much more dilution.
The ones HN like to point at usually are. E.g. basically all of YCombinator companies.
> But most don’t have that luxury.
Thise that don't have the luxury are likely to have salaries more in line with European counterparts.