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Comment by rprospero | Hacker News Reader

Hi! I’m a senior engineer getting $53k in annual salary. Everyone in my department is making the same, my boss included (government job, so I know the salaries). Also, it’s a government job, so obviously zero stock.

Anyway, just letting you know that we’re out here.

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> Everyone in my department is making the same, my boss included

I'm curious—how does this work? More responsibility ought to mean more compensation—what incentive is there to be a boss if you'll make the same as your reports?

Differing skillsets? Managing people doesn't have to mean more responsibility. Some people are good at doing, others are good at the bureaucracy game and buffering for the doers. Both are critical, and in a good org, both have different, but not necessarily differing scales of responsibility.

I am at the max salary band for my position. His position can admit a higher salary band. After a few years, he’ll have a track record proving his competence in the new position and can apply to be raised to a higher band.

I believe the theory is to avoid the Peter principle. If someone is promoted into a position for which they are not competent, then they can be transferred back to their old position without lowering their salary (since it’s been the same salary the whole time). I also think there’s some stuff about passion, grit, and drive that’s been imported from the private sector.

This makes perfect sense now, thanks for explaining.

Are you in the US?

This seems extremely low for the US. I've had trouble in the past hiring good sr. engineers in the 150-200k range outside of a tech hub.

Are devs staying because they believe in what they do and are willing to take lower compensation?

Were you hiring for a startup?

Because I wouldn't go to work for a startup even for that much (which is over 2x my current salary). The instability and likelihood of toxic techbro culture (eg, "fast-paced work environment, with people passionate about what they do", aka "you'll be expected to work 80-100 hours a week"...) are just way too high.

There's a real risk of that, but you interview a company as much as the company interviews you. Ask the hard questions and be willing to say no to them if you think they're that type.

I don't know if you're in US or Europe or somewhere else, but "2x my current salary", meaning you're around ~75-100k? In the US that's low for software aside from maybe early career or if you're working for some non-software-oriented company, from what I can tell now that salaries are starting to be publicly listed on more and more jobs.

You're probably doing yourself a disservice by at the very least not even exploring other options and sticking at one place out of comfort.

Just my 2 cents, you know your situation better than some rando on the internet.

May I ask what country?

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