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Trade Group: US Software Developer Wages Fell 2% Last Year
First time accepted submitter russotto points out the claim of industry group TechAmerican Foundation (reported by Computerworld) that "wages for the software industry are falling, not rising. Wages fell 2% to $99,000 in 2012." Averages are one thing; the article points out though that wages vary vastly within the industry, and that some jobs are harder to fill (thus, better paid) than others. An excerpt: "Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates, a research firm that also analyzes IT wage and employment trends, cited a number of reason for the decline in wages for software professionals. First, technology is becoming easier to implement without having an IT professional, he said. Also, the option of turning to outsourcing creates less pressure to increase wages.
As the recession continues, companies continue 'to look at productivity and will often look to hire individuals who are lower cost employees,' said Janulaitis. That could include displaced baby boomer workers who have been out of work for some time and 'will take a lower paying job just to get back into the workforce.'"
Also, the option of turning to outsourcing creates less pressure to increase wages
WORKER: I would like to discuss a raise to my salary
BOSS: No, you aren't getting a raise. Hell, you should be HAPPY to get what you are getting. I could get 10 guys from Infosys for what I am paying you!
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
CEO wages only went up 3.6%.
Of course their wage base is slightly higher than us mere mortals.
From my own personal experience, you get what you pay for. Yes, you can overpay, but that is true for any employee. A few good programmers will outperform 100 mediocre "code-monkeys", and that holds true even if there are 1 or 2 good leads / architects. Why? Because a good design doesn't overcome bad code. I'll also note that there are some companies that just fill seats. The jobs here are not the kind that appeal to good programmers, unless they just want to pull a paycheck while working on something they care about. There are lots of these jobs, and most holding them are overpaid.
I personally know of several where the "programmers' don't know how to even configure their own tools, nor build their software locally (this would be on both .NET and Java platforms btw, and multiple cases for both). Sadly, these "engineers" are paid near the average, and barely can converse about basic language concepts. They've been employed for years, in some cases a decade or more, at a single company. These are the type of folks that make outsourcing seem viable, because you'll get about the same quality of people there, and sometimes, if you're lucky, better. It doesn't mean you'll succeed with either set.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Here's a link to the original study. It's not clear where they are getting the "wages fell 2%" statistic, but in California, the average annual wage was $123,900.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
lower cost employees ... could include displaced baby boomer workers who have been out of work for some time and 'will take a lower paying job just to get back into the workforce.'
Maybe when pigs fly. If you've been out of work for some time or are old enough to be a boomer, you'll have a hard time getting a job. Put 'em together and you're probably toast. Hiring boomers who've been out of work for a while at lower pay would be a rational and probably a desirable response (not the lower pay part, but in a market economy that's how it works). In reality employers are horribly prejudiced against such people and will just scream that we need more H-1B's.
That's nonsense. What the union negotiates for depends on what the union members vote for, so you don't have to put things like "can't promote people to management" into the contract if you don't want it.
A example of the kinds of things a union could organize for programmers if one existed:
- Limits on and payment for overtime, after-hours and weekend work.
- Office conditions. Usually that isn't an issue, but if it is and your choices are "deal with it" or "quit", you may want a third option.
- Hiring standards that prevent a true idiot from ever working at the company.
- And yes, minimum pay agreements.
I am officially gone from
As the recession continues, ...
By what definition is the recession continuing? While, the job market has not recovered, I do believe we have been experiencing economic growth.
winning the day. Didn't work our so well for Corel did it? Or Novel? Or Sun?
Good enough is always good enough. Yeah, you're few good programmers will make better code, but my 100 code monkeys will make more of it. I'll have 10 products to market in the time you have 1, and I'll do it for less $. I'll take those savings and spend them winning bids in backroom deals. Eventually I'll buy up your company just to shut it down. Well, not unless Microsoft beats me to it.
Also, What's with this thing in America where we always, always blame the worker? Did it ever occur to you that you really can't compete in a global race to the bottom? Like clean air & water? Like health care? A steady food supply? Too bad. Somewhere in the world is a worker willing to live without it. You'll have to give up those 'luxuries' to compete.
As the saying goes: If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?
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also a real apprenticeship system with mixed classroom / on the job training can come from a union and or guild system.
and a union hall hiring system can help to cut out at least some of the recruiter BS.
Sunday afternoon. Just after a few major Whitehouse scandals and some general nastiness in the form of an armature terrorist attack and a kidnapper. This won't even slow down the call for more H1-Bs, despite the fact that we're told over and over that a worker shortage should _raise_ wages.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
C# Decimal type?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.decimal(v=vs.80).aspx
That said I believe the guptas wouldn't bother or understand.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
falling wages can also be a sign of growth. We hired 50% more software developers last year, of course, most of them were with less experience than our current ones, so they were paid less, but our current ones got fat raises as well.
The math works, and often these numbers are more a trend of waves of new hires, rather than any one particular person expecting a pay cut.
Learn to love Alaska
I don't doubt it's true. Over the last 5 years or so, I've seen the purchasing power of my wages steadily eroding, even with a salary increase in every year except this one. The excuse given this year was "you are too close to the top of your salary range" - yep, the salary range that was established in 2002, and not adjusted for inflation, or for any other reason. In the four years prior, the maximum increase was a little more than 2%, which was quickly consumed (and then some) by increases in the employee portion of our heath care premiums.
That being said, I'm generally happy with the lifestyle my salary can purchase, and I'm not looking to make a move to another employer. Nor am I particularly well-positioned to do so - I'm old enough that I intend to exit the industry in less than 10 years, and there's certainly no lack of younger developers who would work for less. The value my employer gets from me is from some niche skills and knowledge that would not necessarily be very marketable elsewhere. I've kept my skills current, but that's not where the real value comes from - it comes from intimate knowledge of our business, products, and industry.
I'm fairly content, but I have a lot of sympathy for people who have recently started careers in software development, or who are planning to. It ain't all it's cracked up to be.
it's taking all our cron jobs!
Apparently that is the C# decimal datatype class. .NET world - make a complicated class and use it where you'd normally use a primitive type and don't worry about speed or memory usage.
And it is 1/27th the speed of a double, this kind of thing is pretty normal in the
But then, us old timers wouldn't bother with such a way of doing things where performance is necessary (I'd except every time when using a decimal class), no we'd do something like this. 27 times slower... progress :-(
I can afford 10, maybe 20 failures for the 1 project that succeeds
yeah, but not everyone can work for Google.
Yeah. That's a totally commensurate response to my saying the recession ended in 2009. Good day to you sir, Mr. Anonymous Coward!
"technology is becoming easier to implement without having an IT professional, he said. Also, the option of turning to outsourcing creates less pressure to increase wages"
Such analysis dreamed up by delusional management everywhere, how to get rid of their own IT staff and since they don't understand IT, it must be easy !
AccountKiller
I am a programmer, and I work in a union. It's actually quite nice, and it floors me that so many people have convinced themselves it's a bad thing. Here's what we get.
1) Overtime pay. It's not as good as regular overtime pay, but it is greater than your base hourly rate, and it does discourage your employer from working you overtime unless they honestly need it. I have currently negotiated with my manager a base schedule of only 35 hours a week; not common but I have known several people working similar schedules.
2) Scheduled annual pay raises. Not huge raises, usually in the ballpark of 2%-7%, but very respectable raises and everyone in the union gets them.
3) Protections with regard to leave. E.g. things like parental leave and other leave of absences.
4) Above average health insurance. My wife works for the state, and my insurance is better than hers. Take that for what you want.
What we don't get. Our offices generally suck. This is probably more an issue of this being an older company with older office buildings, rather than having anything to do with the union. The union could negotiate working conditions, but as our union is spread out among a great number of building sites, it's not a uniform concern. Also, the union doesn't negotiate for hiring standards.