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You are confusing the article about the study from the study itself. The first line of the study is "This study examines the gender pay gap using a unique data set of hundreds of thousands of Glassdoor salaries shared anonymously by employees online."

From TFA: "Unlike most studies, we include detailed statistical controls for specific job titles and company names."

They adjusted for varying job titles for the exact same work. Nothing about mainframes in there. Some more info here.

Can anyone else make sense of this?

See the appendix, and my post explaining what went wrong with their analysis of their data.

This is a terrible summary, though in this case the fault lies with Glassdoor's summary of their own data, rather than slashdot.

If you look at the details in the appendix, you'll see that their sample size for the "Computer Programmer" title was only 138, as compared to 2330 "Software Architects", 3525 "Front-end Engineers", 13461 "Software Engineers", 2199 "Programmer Developers", etc. All of those other job categories had much lower gender pay gaps in the 4-6% range. That's still too large, but it's much better than 28%.

So what really happened here was that the report analyzed based on self-reported job titles and it so happened that a very rarely-used title, computer programmer, with a small sample size, just happened to have an extreme gender pay difference. Personally, I wonder what kind of company calls their people "computer programmers". In my 25 year career I've had a variety of titles, including "Software developer", "Software engineer", "Software architect", "I/T specialist", "I/T architect", "Software team lead", etc. with various other tags attached like "junior", "senior", "consulting" and so on. I have never, ever had "computer programmer" as my official title, and never known anyone else with that title either.

The execs see the remote workers still worth the 1/10 to 1/100 salary in India worth the remote. They don't think "remote workers" in the US, who still cost almost as much, worth it. If remote workers in the USA would work for the average India-based software engineer wage of around 11K USD then IBM would hire here in the US again LOL. All we have to do in the USA is be willing to work for $6-$7 an hour!

"... Amazon can and does hire geniuses..."

Amazon can and does do foolish things. Abusing Amazon employees is just one example. A few links:

Dear Amazon interns, some advice from an old man who has been at Amazon way too long. Quote: "Amazon's work-life balance is awful."

Inside Amazon's Kafkaesque performance-improvement plan

Inside Amazon's Bizarre Corporate Culture

Glassdoor Reviews of Amazon

Amazon Is a Time Thief, by an Amazon Employee.

Working for Amazon Sounds Utterly Soul Crushing.

Life in an Amazon Warehouse: Fear and Efficiency at 35 Orders Per Second

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Southwest sold its soul to Bangalore and is now enjoying the benefits.

From glassdoor, it does seem like there's a troubling amount of people complaining about work-life balance, although not totally out of line with other tech companies:
http://www.glassdoor.com/Revie...

http://www.glassdoor.com/Salar...
National Avg $107,083

I was about to call BS on you, but apparently you aren't that far off!
Harvard University Professor and Dean Salaries
Harvard University Associate Dean Salaries

I was about to call BS on you, but apparently you aren't that far off!
Harvard University Professor and Dean Salaries
Harvard University Associate Dean Salaries

Dear Amazon interns, some advice from an old man who has been at Amazon way too long. Quote: "Amazon's work-life balance is awful."

Working for Amazon Sounds Utterly Soul Crushing.

Life in an Amazon Warehouse: Fear and Efficiency at 35 Orders Per Second

Inside Amazon's Kafkaesque performance-improvement plan

Inside Amazon's Bizarre Corporate Culture

Amazon Is a Time Thief, by an Amazon Employee.

Is Amazon an unpleasant place to work? Quote: "Based on my experience, I agree with what everyone has said about the company being a horrible place to work."

Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace

Glassdoor Reviews of Amazon

"After reading this I'm not going to even entertain the thought of working there."

A few links to stories that say that's a good decision:

Dear Amazon interns, some advice from an old man who has been at Amazon way too long. Quote: "Amazon's work-life balance is awful."

Inside Amazon's Kafkaesque performance-improvement plan

Inside Amazon's Bizarre Corporate Culture

Glassdoor Reviews of Amazon

Amazon Is a Time Thief, by an Amazon Employee.

Working for Amazon Sounds Utterly Soul Crushing.

Life in an Amazon Warehouse: Fear and Efficiency at 35 Orders Per Second

Amazon appears to pay white collar workers (the subject of this article) fairly well. If you cannot afford to keep a family of 4 on $9,000 per month, then you're doing it wrong. Yes, Seattle housing has gotten more expensive - but you can still find hundreds of houses for sale that would have 3+ bedrooms (so little Johnny and little Mary can have their own rooms), 2+ bathrooms, and are standalone homes - and are available for under $500,000 (meaning about a $2,000/month mortgage - should be simple for a monthly income of $9,000).

If the typical white collar Amazon worker cannot afford to feed their kids and pay a mortgage AND put away 10% of their income every month - then they really need some basic budgeting skills and self-control.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Inter...

Since you didn't provide the information to back up your statement, I will provide it for you. Minimum wage has been above $10 in today's dollars for about 3 years in the late 1960s. And a resulting decade of runaway inflation was the result, with home mortgage interest rates of 15% and Credit card interest rates in the 30s. At least credit card interest was tax deductible back then.
As for the wages in other countries, in Switzerland, they pay $18.82 per hour, a Big mac costs $6.82. Wage is over 125% higher, and a Big Mac is 42% higher.
In Norway, the wage is $15.40 and the cost of a Big Mac is 20% higher.
In Sweden, the wage is $12.32 and the cost of a Big Mac is 7% higher.
In Denmark, the wage is $14.00 and the cost of a Big Mac is 6% higher.
Some places, the wage is less than in the U.S.
In Israel, the wage is $6.05 and the cost of a Big Mac is 4% less.
The data is pretty consistent. The higher the minimum wage, the higher the cost of goods and services.

Ever see GlassDoor? Seems like a great idea.

Like it or not, a lot of nasty employment conditions are technically legal or hard to prove. Really the best thing is to publicize what is happening on glassdoor and similar sites. It's not going to immediately stop entry level employees, who have few better choices, from applying. But confirmed bad practices will deny the perpetrator ability to recruit top talent for positions that have the most impact on the company's future.

As of now, Intermex is described as nice working environment on Glassdoor. If I was considering an offer and read about 24/7 GPS tracking in page after page of reviews, I certainly would not join.

What's the J in JPay stand for?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

http://www.glassdoor.com/Revie...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Don't let the facts get in your way, but Walmart pays well above minimum wage.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Salar...

Raising the minimum wage will only make the problem worse. When the minimum wage goes up, there are less jobs. How far do you think McDonalds is from replacing their staff with robots? Another couple minimum wage hikes and many manual labor jobs will just disappear. Also, when minimum wage goes up, the costs for needed items rises as well quickly eating up any raises.

What you should really be advocating for a is a basic income.

http://theweek.com/articles/45...

Also, forget affordable healthcare, we need to just have single payer and get it over with. We pay so much more than all the other countries for health care, without any improvement of outcomes.

Hiring software engineers in the US, UK and Australia (3 countries I have worked) is very very difficult. And retaining skilled engineers is even harder. Engineers have one of the highest voluntary turnover rate of any profession because the opportunities elsewhere are immense.

And before I hear you claim that it is because companies just aren't paying enough, lets consider this: STEM jobs account for 7 out of 10 jobs of the highest paying jobs in the country according to this survey on glassdoor: http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/.... The other three are lawyer, finance manager, and tax manager.

They DID announce HL2 Ep 3 for Christmas of 2007.

Which well at this point, they might as well just release HL3.

Peter Molyneux's problem is that he over promises and under delivers. Valve's problem is that they over promise and sometimes never deliver.

As far as the Steam Machine thing goes, I didn't notice the Steam Machines are actually showing a release. Which, good on them.

As far as Valve's internal drama, It's not just Jeri Ellsworth.

If they get their shit together and start releasing things, I'll cut them some slack. But after really waiting around and watching, I'm just not impressed and I'm not "in love" with Valve like the OP says I should be.

Everyone has their place in life and society and everyone should be equally **VALUED** and not be put down by assholes like you with an ego problem.

Two things. Number one, ego has nothing to do with it. In fact, if anything, I have quite the opposite.

Number two, we're now debating "value". I read it as a monetary statement, meaning that they want the same pay. If you want to take a more altruistic approach then I can only agree with you. Every life is of equally value, and everyone should be able to make a decent living. And that is exactly what I wrote.

My point is simply that greater efforts and success deserve a greater reward. That's what it all boils down to. If Peter gives up his software engineering job to be an unskilled construction worker, that is his choice but he should also accept the lower paycheck. If your EE buddy chooses to work as a burger flipper because he enjoys that more: go ahead, but don't complain about a $10/hr wage.

And I'll let you in on a little secret: I dropped out of high school as well. It was not until I was 21 that I realized that I wouldn't get far without an education. So I want back to college at nighttime next to a full time job at a factory, and earned my Bachelor's. I got into tech and moved to Norcal, and got my Master's degree (again nighttime/weekend studies) last year. I worked very hard and made lots of sacrifices to get where I am today. And it pisses me off to a unimaginable levels that others demand the same level of compensation without doing anything to earn it.

I directly report to an SVP of my age. Sure I'd love to have the same responsibilities and pay. But I know I will be working very hard for another 10 years, at a minimum, before I'll be able to reach that level. He also worked very hard to get where he is and he earned it all the way by making the right choices and sacrifices.

These days, you can get a Bachelor's degree for as little as $12k, and ever for half of it if you are quick enough. Without going to class, at your own pace. TFA mentions a bus driver doing nothing for 7 hours a day. He would get his degree in as little as 18 months if he would spend that time studying.

Being poor is no longer an excuse. Being a minority is no longer an excuse. Having dropped out of high school is no longer an excuse. You want something, you earn it, don't demand it.

On a side note, there are professions that are grossly underpaid. Examples are teachers, nurses, and other healthcare workers who are expected to have a decent education but get barely enough money to drive a car. These are the type of people that should be earning $30 instead of the $12-15 they're getting right now.

Show me a driver who makes 30/hr.

Here are a few citations, that contradict each other, but all list pay over $30/hour.
Salary for a unionized UPS driver: $82,997
Wage for a UPS driver: $12-$33
This is just base pay. The cost to the employer is the burdened cost of base pay, plus taxes, medical, unemployment insurance, pension, etc.

Swagging it, 1.4 million implies at least 14 staff attorneys would have to work 12 months.

A federal government's staff attorney makes $126K per year on average. (Plus bonuses, benefits, office space and supplies, and a manager.) That's about $1.8 million at least, more likely well over $2million.

Now, to be able to go through 13000 cases (each with multiple documents), each member of this hypothetical team will need to process 928 cases. How many can they process per day? To finish in the 12 months allotted (250 business days, less 20 vacation days per person), it would have to be more than 4 cases per day per attorney.

Possible, but on the optimistic side. As I said, if there is anything wrong with the requested fee, it is too low.

Now, maybe, as the AC below suggests, the entire government has to keep all of its documents ready for publishing from the moment they are created (with the necessary black-outs specified by each document's very author or his boss) — and publish them automatically after certain number of years. But that would require an actual dramatic change in how the government bureaucracy operates — a change well beyond the ability (perhaps, even imagination) of not only the community organizer we've got, but even of a seasoned CEO, who almost replaced him the last time...

http://www.glassdoor.com/

Use it to screen companies before an interview. It is always fun when they ask "Do you have any questions for us?" and you pull comments from glassdoor and ask if they have corrected the issue. ;)

In order to have a comparison you have to have two sets of data. You've provided only one set.

I provided the hard to get set.

Look up the non H1-B yourself here:
http://www.glassdoor.com/

http://www.glassdoor.com/Salar...

Yeah, $60K for a registered nurse doesn't sound like much with a high cost of living area like DC. That sucks.

Still, with the right degree, it's not an endless amount of debt. I had mine paid off in 3 years. I hear it's more expensive now though. Advocate In-State yo.
Really any welfare reform is going to have to address the shift from primary->secondary->Tertiary economies. There's an infinite amount of work for scientists and engineers. You should advocate education. In all it's forms.

it will set precedent by giving valid reason to occasionally manipulate the system by handing out more welfare money, which is exactly what I want to never do

Yeah, I dunno dude, automation keeps taking away more jobs. When they come for the paper pushers, I'm not sure I'm going to say anything. If your stated goal is to cut welfare money, then I don't think you're going to get a lot of believers. It's like how Nixon was caught bringing in the system of HMOs because he wanted it to reduce care and funnel money in the right direction.

My simulations indicate

it is extremely nuanced in theory, and only simple in practice when you've ingested a ton of theory and come up with a rough diagram that doesn't violate that theory

Oh get off it dude. Any economic plan like this is tied to the hip of sociology. And sociology is the softest of sciences and everyone is just guessing. It might be better informed guesses than the average shmuck, and avoid some of the more obvious pitfalls, but I have little faith that any social plan will work as intended. And if you don't think economics have anything to do with human culture and social trends, then I have zero faith in any economic plan you have. Like you said, it's complex.

Still, it's probably a good plan. Might be better than the current welfare system we have. I doubt it will be any less complex, or at least won't become as complex in time. The part where everyone has it, and there's no issue with getting on or getting off of it is a good idea. It solves the problem with the one-rung-up people having it the hardest. And the stigma of taking a handout. Although some would argue there should be a stigma as an encouragement to get off the dole. The part where the social security admin has to directly process contracts between citizens and slum lords is probably a no-go.

He has a point. Every story about women in STEM is plagued with posts trying to disrupt any effort to improve things. Typical arguments include: - There is no problem - Girls just don't like computers ...

Is it possible that either of these are true, even in a general sense? There are gender disparities in several fields. The median salary for nurses is $65,470, whereas the median salary for IT Technicians is $42,992

OMFG, who the hell would want to work in IT for less than $42K a year? Because if $42K/year is the median that would suggest half of all IT technicians are getting paid peanuts. Unless you live in a low-cost, rural small city or town, less than $42K/year is very goddamned low nowadays.

There are gender disparities in several fields. The median salary for nurses is $65,470, whereas the median salary for IT Technicians is $42,992, but you don't hear a whole bunch of FUD over the fact that 90% of nurses are females. And when it comes right down to it, nurses are far more valuable to society than IT techs.

The male nurse point is a bad example because people do care about that.

He has a point. Every story about women in STEM is plagued with posts trying to disrupt any effort to improve things. Typical arguments include:
- There is no problem
- Girls just don't like computers
...

Is it possible that either of these are true, even in a general sense? There are gender disparities in several fields. The median salary for nurses is $65,470, whereas the median salary for IT Technicians is $42,992, but you don't hear a whole bunch of FUD over the fact that 90% of nurses are females. And when it comes right down to it, nurses are far more valuable to society than IT techs. Meanwhile, oil rig workers, about 95% male, make on average $99,175. Why no big push for women in that field?

http://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Dice-EI_IE8654.11,15.htm

Employees say it's “OK” 16 ratings
3.3

71% Approve of the CEO 10 ratings
Dice President, CEO, and Director
Scot W. Melland

https://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=DHX

Thanks for the reply to this and my other in this thread. Yes, "supposed" was intentional. :-) My point about Google's service offerings and Android was not to express a preference, just to point out why Google's Android had an edge in adoption. I'd rather use services that spy/track/advertise less, even if you still have to assume for prudence that all communications are logged and decryptable.

And for my other comment and your reply, I read on Glassdoor a lot of people inside Mozilla are unhappy with the current direction anyway, so agreeing with them could have been a plus, who knows. :-)
http://www.glassdoor.com/Revie...
"Con: "And if you work in Firefox OS expect no understanding of what's happening and when" in 3 reviews"
And: "Most of the org is in service to Firefox OS - this is necessary given the company's direction, but sucks resources from other projects." And: "They're now spending $100m/yr on developers. It's very hard to see what that's achieving. Seems as if top talent is wasting its time there compared to what's being achieved at Google, Apple and others. One reason is massive technical debt and an insane codebase."

To respond to your points on cost and underserved markets, it sounds like you know a lot about Mozilla. I won't disagree that their strategy is plausible. However, I've seen a similar approach not work our well for the OLPC as an entire new software ecosystem, so I remain skeptical. If even Microsoft can't succeed in the smart phone market, is Mozilla likely to?

Here were some comments I wrote about five years ago on the OLPC project as a software developer who participated in the Give-One-Get-One program (getting two and giving two):
http://p2pfoundation.net/backu...
"Imagine, Google and Verizon could even make a promise now to customers -- buy your Droid through Verizon, and in two years, if you continue your cell phone plan, we will give you the latest Droid version and if you return the old one to a Verizon store, we'll send it to materially poor kids loaded with educational software that teaches them how to read, write, and do math. And with bluetooth, and WiFi, the Droid could even have some software that works along the lines that Sugar aspired to do, with kids collaborating together. What a deal -- and it might greatly boost current sales. :-) Maybe someone should forward this note to someone they know at Google or Verizon? :-) Seriously, what US teacher would not buy a Droid over an iPhone knowing it was going to teach some poor kid to read in two years? (Of course, Apple might eventually have to follow suit. :-) And that gives me and the rest of the free software developer world two years to write all that free software for those kids. :-) "

As I suggest there, hand-me-down phones (perhaps with new batteries) may well be much cheaper than anything else for emerging markets. And those phones run Android plus some other OSes. I also think it unlikely Firefox will meet any special low-power goals or cost goals that Android phones would not meet. Most apps are not that performance critical so Java on Android is good enough, and Java will probably be more power efficient than JavaScript in Firefox OS. So where is the power savings or other costs savings really going to come from? I like ideas like "Design For The Other 90%", but it is still hard to beat a free Android phone given Moore's law and continued falling prices. The Kyocera Hydro is now US$30 on Amazon. It is better than probably any Android phone from 2009 when I wrote the above -- especially the G1 Android Phone I got as an Android developer which dies eight months later. In another couple years that same Hydro phone might be US$20 or less in the USA. And it would probably be already much cheaper now if purchas

Summary: Yuppie WASP thinks he knows the solution to poverty: If they would only get of their lazy bums, they wouldn't be poor anymore!

How are so who are so uninformed about the nature of poverty in the US so confident in their deluded opinions? (Wait, I know, it's because Republican rhetoric about government "entitlements.")

I'd argue that if you have exploited to the fullest the "free education" you get in the US to age 18, never done drugs nor become addicted to alcohol, etc, and neither fathered/mothered a child until you had a stable job and income post-highschool then there's no way you're working minimum-wage jobs for any sustained period of time.

If you would argue that, you'd either be a moron or someone who is so uninformed as to be totally unqualified to speak on the topic.

Education in the US is not created equal. Try being born in the inner city where the high school has a 15% graduation rate (half that of the city average) and even those who do graduate often fail to understand 7th grade level algebra. Now add on to this an alcoholic mother who kicks you out of the house whenever she gets drunk, forcing you to either 1.) spend the night with your drug dealing uncle, 2.) spend the night at a shelter where someone is stabbed to death roughly once a month, or 3.) sleep on the street. Are you going to graduate from high school?

This is not a hypothetical story. I am describing an actual person that I knew back when I volunteered with the social work department at an inner city hospital.

Let's say that you beat the odds that are overwhelmingly against you and graduate from high school. If you are like the young man that I knew, you have never even heard of the SAT. Your high school's average SAT is below 1000 (on the 2400 scale). And those that do go to a local HBCU with only a 30% graduation rate and absolutely horrendous job placement. Trade school is a more reasonable alternative, but you can't afford the tuition and financial aid for trade school is basically non-existent.

Your only option at this point is to go for jobs that will take people with a high school diploma, but you live in a city where unemployment is 147% that of the rest of the state. Odds are that the best you will be able to get is a part time job at the local McDonald's. If you work hard, in three or four years, you might work your way up to assistant manager and make a whopping $10/hr.

This will barely be enough to pay for your rent (usually about $700/month for a single bedroom, perhaps $600 after rental assistance), let alone enough to save up for an education or to pay for the cost of raising children.

If you see any way to escape this situation through hard work, please let me know. If there were any bad choices made here that resulted in their just deserts, please let me know.

Now, if you have a cellphone, and cable, kids, and you smoke, and own a house...that $24,000 starts to get pretty thin. But then, you're already living better than 2/3rds of the people on the planet, not bad for "being poor"?

1.) A lot of the people I knew back when I volunteered with social work would have killed to make $24,000 a year. The average income of the people I worked with was probably closer to $10k - $15k per year because most people were unable to find anything but part time work. 2.) Let's pretend that it is easy to make $24k/yr. So poor people in the US on average live better than sub-Saharan Africans and we call that progress? The US is the wealthiest nation in the world. We absolutely should not be comparing ourselves to the lowest 2/3rd that still

Seriously? I know full well that at least in SFO, ATL and PDX that a solid sysadmin, DevOps, or DBA has no shortage of openings to pursue. I get pestered at least 6-10 times a week with reputable offers (and don't ask how many fly-by-night Indian outfits I've had to spam-can).

I think I know what's going on... or at least part of it. It's because the market is short-handed in many areas.

I'm trying to hire sysadmins right now - once we weed out the bullshitters and the obviously incompetent, the rest demand one hell of a high salary (call it at least $95k/yr outside of SFO, and $150k/yr inside SFO), and odds are good that management is going to be forced to cut loose with the funds to do it (and for myself as well, damnit). We managed to hire exactly one out of the four slots we have open... in the past 5 months. Meanwhile, I'm trying to make do with the staff I got. We avoid pushing anyone above 50hrs/week, but I often catch a lot of them working 60+ hours anyway.

IMHO, given the amount of work that is out there (at least in my neighborhood of tech), any employer who thinks they can treat employees like crap will quickly find that they're stuck with either no staff, or incompetent staff - either way they're screwed. Example? No problem. A local company around here tried to recruit me as a DevOps (they call it a "Systems Engineer" position.) However, not only was it named as one of the worst companies in tech to work for, but nearly everyone in the local area I asked has warned me off from 'em (there was plenty to say about them, and little of it good. To top that off, my own research backed it up.)

There's nothing "apocryphal" about it. $150k base salary for a senior software engineer is pretty standard in SV, as are $50k bonuses. That puts you into the top 1% if you're single or a double income couple. Check for yourself on Glassdoor:

http://www.glassdoor.com/Salar...

Netflix pays over $300k for some senior software engineers.

I'm sorry that shatters your illusion of who "the 1%" are, but there you have it.

As for "unearned income", it's not a loophole, you can't close it, and if you could, it would be a disaster for the economy.

People riding the Google Bus are not the one percent. Hell, most likely not even the top five percent

Why the fuck anybody would have a problem with companies providing middle-class workers with traffic-reducing, environmentally friendly transport to work us utterly beyond me. But, oh please, successful people: lay off the victimhood schtick. It's silly and unbecoming.

Torrenting predated netflix, so I'm skeptical that torrenting is going to be very disruptive to netflix.

Hulu seems like it would have a better shot. And interestingly, Hulu has a better rating by glassdoor, of 4.1. That said, I'm keeping my netflix account and not getting hulu because 1. I don't work at either place 2. I think Hulu's allies are more damaging to the larger society than netflix and 3. I'm willing to settle for the lesser of two evils to be entertained.

Most developers make at least $120K every year. And that is simply the net salary.

No, they don't. Perhaps you're thinking of the *top 10%* of software developers.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Facebook-Reviews-E40772.htm

according to 500 people, facebook is a nice company to work for and they all approve of zuckerberg. Thats not a lot considering facebook employs far more people than just those 500 reviewers. Facebookers: feel free to update information accordingly to we can at least attempt an objective view of this mans policies and actions as glorious leader.

Yes, it looks like such rough times for cardiologists.

This may not be making as much money as you wanted, but you are well above the income that most people would call "rich". You should be able to pay off those student loans in no time if you can manage to live frugally (by this I mean not spend too much more than twice the average US income) for under one year.

From this, it looks like Apple Retail people are paid somewhere in the $10/hr to $18/hr range depending on if they are sales, a "specialist" or a "genius."

So if they're median retail salary is above Costco, does that mean that Costco is the bad guy evil profit-hoarding destroying-the-world corporation around here now? I know, bringing data into an emotional conversation is never a good idea, but still...

If their was a history of internal theft at these two stores than it is a non-issue. then again Apple should not make their products so expensive that their own underpaid employees cannot afford them. The overcharging-VZW store that I use at least gives their workers any phone while employed there. Manager said it is good advertising.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Apple-Salaries-E1138.htm

The average salary for the lowest job is $11.90/hour.

Assuming a 20 hour work week and net after taxes of $8/hour....

iPad Mini - 40 hours.
iPhone (subsidized) - $25 hours
MacBook Air - 125 hours.

How many hours would I need to work if I were a construction worker to pay for the houses I build? An autoworker?

Who said they can't afford it? An iPhone 5 currently goes for about $500 on eBay. US minimum wage is $7.25/hour, so it takes about 70 hours (1-2 weeks) to earn that much, pre tax.

Apple pays more than minimum wage.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Apple-Salaries-E1138.htm

Well if they are not the best, then they are definitely not being underpaid. You can see Facebook average salaries here, e.g. average base salary $110k.

You don't like their games? Don't buy them. You don't like the games my employer makes? Don't buy them. But sweatshops are sweatshops. I strive to be a great developer on great games for people that love games, but the sanctimoniousness tone of gamers these days with an outside perspective on how our industry really ticks makes it increasingly more difficult.

I have a fair perspective on how the industry ticks and I'm saying, without sanctimony, that working for EA (maybe not in all divisions) sucks ass - from the mouth of the employees themselves. You may make awesome games...I'm not insulting you.

And don't worry, you shouldn't have illusions about your boycott - there are enough folks like you who paint massive companies or countries or organizations with broad brushes that they actually do have an impact. So you can be happy your scatterbombs do impact the performances of games and get well meaning studios closed and reopened elsewhere (rebranded, because apparently, this is very confusing for people like you.) You might not take down EA, but you can be glad you'll probably be very very slightly responsible for an EA studio here and there to get shutdown for under performing just because of the monolithic brand they were operating under even though you wanted to play such and such a game.

Wait...didn't you just say to not buy their games if i don't like them? I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I said I'm already doing. You want to blame me for getting studios shut down because they are part of a giant mismanaged corporate entity?? Who's being sanctimonious now? Ultimately it is probably better for them because they can find a job at another developer like yours where they have a good work environment, can make some money, and can take pride in what they do as you do. As I said, and you reconfirmed - I have no illusions that my impact on their sales means a damn thing. The whole reason I don't purchase their games is because each one that I've tried in the last ~6 years has been garbage or riddled with issues regardless of how excited I was to play it or how much I wanted to like it.

I just think it's fucking retarded to claim you're into games and think that railing against EA as a whole will lead to some kind of corporate meritocracy in the industry. You think you're playing games? You're the one who's being played.

Again, I have no illusions that some meritocracy will form out of my protest. I'm didn't claim I was pulling a Gandhi and going on a hunger strike dude...I have been disappointed with their games repeatedly and so I don't buy their games anymore. I said, in a nutshell, that it was their mismanagement of their giant corporate machine that kills their games and that it would take their developers leaving for greener pastures to force some real change at the company. Your last statements are just silly but I have this to say: If you think that the conditions at EA are just something that you have to deal with to be a developer in your industry, and if your employer treats you like EA does its employees, then you work in a soulless environment that saps all of your creative drive and you are the one being played my friend.

They haven't done the obvious. Cancel federal income tax and replace it with a sales tax. It'd be a whole lot easier to handle businesses than it would be individuals.

In 2009, there were just under 6,000,000 active businesses.
In 2009, there were 140,494,127 individual tax returns filed.

The IRS employs about 93,000 employees and is expected to hire 16,500 more.

By eliminating the individual filing requirement, you'd eliminate almost 96% of the returns.
IRS agents have an average salary near $75,000.

Let's say you applied 4 times the labor to each business return.
Then only about 18,000 staff are required to handle the load.

91,500 jobs would be cut for an annual savings of $6.8 billion.

If the company is big enough there should be plenty of information here: glassdoor.com. You can also look at salary.com for more generic information. If your school works with certain companies (like 12twenty.com), then you can get statistics and information based on responses from other students at your university through the school provided portal/site.

I used to work for Autonomy. I have no sympathy for them.
My little article is here
After Autonomy's lawyers bullied me and anyone who supported me to take my article off line. I eventually lost my net access after Autonomy complained to BT, my ISP; they never issued an explanation or apology but still took money from my account. It took years and a letter to the BT chairman before I got a refund.
The article was originally subtitled "Stress Is More Fun" but seems to have got lost; if you read the article, you'll find out why it had this moniker. To find out what others think, look at Glassdoor

http://www.glassdoor.com/GD/Salary/United-Airlines-Flight-Attendant-Salaries-E683_D_KO16,32.htm?filter.experienceLevel=TEN_PLUS/

$84k:

try $48K at most.

12-15 days off per month (average):

not if you want that $48K: More like 10 days off...

free travel for you and your family:

There's never any "space available" for those pesky employees. It's nothing but an enormous waste of time to even try.

big discounts on rental cars and hotels

You get the same thing we do...

per diem of $3k-$5k per year:

What? Do you think dining on the road is cheap- you must not travel much. That doesn't even cover it. Take a look next time, most of them carry a cooler full of food with them.

tuition reimbursement, matching 401k:

YGTBSM. Maybe at Southwest, but even with them 401K's are the only retirement.

pensions:

GONE, GONE, GONE. After telling us to take MASSIVE paycuts to save them- tremendous bait and switch. We were totally suckered. Live and learn...

Of course, airline pilots making up to $200k per year and all the above is a pretty good deal too.:

IAAAP (I am an airline pilot) and I don't even make half that- after 17 years. From the devil itself:http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2009/06/16/pilot-pay-want-to-know-how-much-your-captain-earns/. Not everybody gets to be Captain, and it take years to make it. Oh yeah, they keep raising the retirement age: moving the line ever so further away...