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Comment by throwaway5959 | Hacker News Reader

An L5 (SDE II) at Amazon makes $251k a year total comp according to Levels.fyi. That’s more than directors make at some companies and double the total comp of a principal engineer at other companies. Barring a medical reason which absolutely should be accommodating, asking employees to show up is not an unreasonable request at that compensation level.

Edit: Is there something offensive about what I’m saying here? Why am I being downvoted for this comment?

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What does being required to sit at a desk in an office have to do with how much money you make? By that logic should CEOs stop flying around the world and remain in a single office 24x7 because hey, they make so much money?

I think RTO is stupid, especially as it will lower productivity for most and a lot of execs won’t be returning. I just think it’s insane to feel off put by going into the office when pulling down more than double what others who (checks notes) have to go into a significantly more dangerous job site five days a week.

So because some others are in a shit situation I must also accept a shit situation and not complain. Got it.

Nah just maybe have some self-awareness.

Ok - what is the location? What is the CoL? In the bay area a crappy 60 y/o house costs north of 2M. Are you sure the "directors" you are comparing with are living in comparable neighborhoods buying houses at the same time or living off an inherited property or something they lucked into in the early 2010?

I knew I’d regret not adding the SF asterisk. How much do you think the median person makes in SF and still manages to survive? Quick Google shows $96k/year. Less than half of an SDE2.

No I understand. SF is huge. I dont know what is the level (or quality) of home ownership for folks on that median salary. Or even the location and how "indentured" they are. I do agree that as techies we have the luxury of upward mobility which most of the median salary folks may not have the good fortune of. Just that 250k while sounds great on paper - when your crappy home to house a family (at say southbay) is 2M+ (and this is very very low end) being 3x median while something is not quite eye popping. Yes you could always chose to live a 2hour drive away in a more constrained place - but at this point your "eye popping" TC is not looking that great anymore is it?

Now should a question be what is a "fair" standard of living everyone should have?

I live in a HCOL area. I still feel incredibly fortunate to make six figures.

Yes, location, location, location.

I'm a Bay Area resident in a crappy 76 y/o house worth > 2M. And surprisingly happy about it.

No, nothing offensive. People don't like rational thinking, especially when it points out truths that could take their exceptional comforts away (e.g., high pay and WFH status).

Who knows what could be revealed when people have to be in-office? Perhaps that you are not as skilled as you and your manager(s) assert, and you've taking others' work as your own? Hmm...

“WFH status” I hadn’t thought about the elitism aspect of it. Some people really are a mess.

And yeah, GitHub tracks everyone’s activity and it’s pretty clear who’s “WFH” and who’s working from home.

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