Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Why Are American Tech Workers Paid So Well?
Slashdot reader davidwr is "an American-born, American-educated mid-career IT professional." But he's still curious about why American geeks earn more than their IT counterparts overseas:
If I'm a mid-career programmer looking for a job, why should I expect to be paid a whole lot more than my peer in India when applying for a job that could easily be outsourced to India? If I do get the job, why should I expect to keep it more than a year or two instead of being told "your job is being outsourced" before 2020? Is my American education and 5-25 years of experience in the American workplace really worth it to an employer?
Should we, as an industry, lower our salary expectations -- and that of students entering the field -- to make us more competitive with our peers in India and similar "much cheaper labor than first world" economies? If not, what should we be doing to make ourselves competitive in ways that our peers overseas cannot duplicate?
What's the secret ingredient that justifies those higher salaries? Leave your answers in the comments. Why are American tech workers paid so well?
Should we, as an industry, lower our salary expectations -- and that of students entering the field -- to make us more competitive with our peers in India and similar "much cheaper labor than first world" economies? If not, what should we be doing to make ourselves competitive in ways that our peers overseas cannot duplicate?
What's the secret ingredient that justifies those higher salaries? Leave your answers in the comments. Why are American tech workers paid so well?
As a guy that owns a small IT security startup and has some developers on contract in India and as many full time North Americans as we can afford right now I would say this:
Creativity. Understanding the why as well as the what (aka seeing the big picture), and a general drive to see the company succeed.
None of my contractors give a shit if my company succeeds beyond their next invoice. None of them really seem to care to understand why we are doing what we are doing, they are only focused on their silo of work. And OMG if you don't give them EXACT to the letter specs, the work wont get done. Likely because of the other two things I mentioned, but also I think it might be a culture thing where they are taught both at home and in school to never question, and just memorize and regurgitate to succeed. Yeah they are kinda like human robots in some cases.
I will always pay more for an innovative self-starter that's in my time zone.