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Comment by jjcm | Hacker News Reader

For reference, here's a current job opening for NYT's tech org for a senior software developer: https://boards.greenhouse.io/thenewyorktimes/jobs/4472655005

Salary is 140-155k USD.

For reference, here's levels.fyi's breakdown of the New York city area: https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/new-yor...

Median total comp is 185k.

It seems like their total comp for NYT is slightly above the mark based on reported salaries: https://www.levels.fyi/companies/the-new-york-times-company/...

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Thank you for surfacing this.

A senior role in NYC for 155K (plus bonus, which they do offer) is nothing when you factor in the cost of living.

Read both links. 155 is just salary, TC seems to be on the order of $200k for a senior, which is above-median but not top of market for NYC.

The article (which is paywalled) says average compensation is $190,000.

They also have 600 technologists on staff, which is massively higher than comparable news organizations. I think this is the real elephant in the room: They're hiring (and therefore spending) at a rate that already far outstrips comparable news organizations.

What news organizations truly compare to the NYT tech game though? As far as I can tell, they are at the top.

Comparing to other "news organizations" might not make sense if we're including Wirecutter and the games division (e.g. Wordle) on the NYT side. They should be compared to other types of media orgs.

Not that NYT hasn't done some interesting innovative technical stuff within their journalism.

Wordle was famously made and run by one person. How many are needed to keep it running now?

needs at least a team to remove whatever 5-letter word becomes offensive next year!

The concerns are not around excessive pay but future demands related to seniority. 170k sounds reasonable today, but when you add in a yearly 5% pay raise AND inflation adjustments AND overtime and sick time and retirement contributions it adds up to be a lot.

For example there was a cop in Massachusetts who had "retired" twice and was getting 280k/year due to the way the union rules were set up.

In NYC?? Amazon entry level devs in LCOL areas were making that much in base alone in 2021.

Try redoing your comparison in units of stress per dollar

My simplified equation for stress is: ``` (workload) * (giving a shit) ``` Workload is set by company, giving a shit is set by you. You may not last long, but nothing is stopping you from letting those Jira tickets pile up. It's especially a promising strat if layoffs are market-based instead of performance-based.

Of course I imagine most engineers enjoy feeling productive, and wasting everyone's time does take a psychological toll.

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