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> Engineering salaries are significantly higher than nearly every other industry on average and on median

now compare the profit per employee at tech (software engineering) companies and those industries..

At the top end (say, top 100 tech companies) it’s pretty high indeed. Public companies, for sure, as otherwise their stock price would tank. It’s not uncommon in this industry to have margins above 70-80%.

But there are thousands if not tens of thousands where the profit per employee is minimal or negative.

I can’t find a source for all tech (the data wouldn’t exist for private firms anyway) but I think it’s telling to look at this list, scroll down to about the middle and look around at salaries you or your colleagues are pulling. Software revenues are certainly high but the industry is afloat because of these high margin businesses creating returns so that low margin businesses can exist. Without the massive infusion in upfront capital, very uncommon in other industries, it’s simply not sustainable.

Typically a market that’s buoyed by its top performers but has significant amounts of capital tied up in under performers is called “a bubble”.

https://www.trueup.io/revenue-per-employee

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