Slashdot Mirror
Tech Salaries Had Biggest Year-Over-Year Leap In 2015 (dice.com)
Nerval's Lobster writes: Average technology salaries in the U.S. saw the biggest year-over-year leap ever, up 7.7 percent to $96,370 annually, according to Dice's new survey data. Bonuses and contract rates also rose from 2014, and tech salaries in seven metro areas reached six-figures for the first time since the survey began more than a decade ago. Contract workers saw a rise (5%) in hourly compensation, with contractors earning $70.26 per hour. Other Websites have shown similarly high salaries for tech professionals; Glassdoor, for example, called data scientist the best job in America, with an average salary of $116,840 and bountiful job prospects. But while everything might seem great on a macro level, that doesn't mean tech workers don't face their share of stagnant salaries, brutal workplaces, and annoying managers.
If salaries did really indeed go up, then the amount of productivity expected by the employee has gone up disproportionately thereby negating the value of any salary increase. Looking at dollar figures alone tells only half of the story. You have to look at the average hours per week that an employee puts in. 95,000 a year sounds amazing until you realize you have to put in 80-90 hours a week to earn that money and maybe be on-call 24/7 too. Then it is out and out slavery. I left a Systems Engineer job that required punishing and brutal hours for 95,000 a year. I averaged 75 hours per week over 50 weeks. Now, that 95,000 dollars a year is really around 64,752.00 per year when you estimate taxes. Let's break that down further: it is about 17.33 dollars per hour that you actually net. That's a paltry sum of money considering I gave up my life. Now, I work as a bus driver for gross 17.00 per hour and I net about 15.00 per hour. Suddenly, that 95K a year salary looks like slavery.