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More Than 60% of Tech Workers Feel They're Underpaid (cnbc.com)
gollum123 writes: Tech workers are the envy of labor market -- they earn some of the highest starting salaries and often command top-notch benefits. But money doesn't always buy satisfaction. Entrepreneur reports that tech workers in major American cities earn an average of $135,000 and yet, a survey of 6,000 tech workers conducted by workplace app Blind and reported by Quartz found that over 60 percent feel they aren't being paid enough. The survey also breaks down how tech workers feel about their pay by company. The five tech companies with the highest percentage of employees who felt they were underpaid shared one important characteristic: They were all founded before 1998. Cisco, Intel, Expedia, VMware and Microsoft employees were the most likely to say that they did not make enough money. Cisco had the highest percentage of dissatisfied employees, with 80 percent telling Blind that they did not feel adequately compensated. Facebook employees, on the other hand, were the most like to say that they are overpaid, with 13.8 percent saying that they felt their employer was overly generous.
they are underpaid and would like to get paid more. I am shocked!!!
;)
That it is not 100%
Just my 2 cents
Entrepreneur reports that tech workers in major American cities earn an average of $135,000 and yet, a survey of 6,000 tech workers conducted by workplace app Blind and reported by Quartz found that over 60 percent feel they aren't being paid enough.
I think this is the Dunning Kruger effect in all it's glory. Tech workers are routinely stricken by it, especially here on slashdot.
but wages declined 12-14%. _Everybody_ is underpaid except the ruling class. We gave up our Unions and with them collective bargaining. Rather than fix a little minor corruption we threw baby out with bath water and we're paying the price.
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If I calculate the amount of time I actually work rather than look at my yearly salary, I am making less than a lot of non-technical unskilled labor jobs.
Putting in 50-80 hours a week degrades your quality of life and takes much more valuable time away from from family, but cutting down to only 40 hours a week degrades your productivity and puts you on a track to being fired. Tech workers also take less vacation too.
Because IT is a cost center at most companies, the workers are under more pressure from management to prove themselves essential to the bottom line.
I would think that it would be normal for 50% of people to be paid less than the median salary for any given set of identical positions. so 60% of them feeling underpaid yet having the same job description as their peers who are paid more is lcose to what you might expect.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
... "on average" every one in the bar is a billionaire.
(see "earn an average of $135,000" for more bad statistics.)
Unions made American industry unstable with strikes and transferred money to organized crime. Costs rose and quality plummeted, so industry outsourced.
If the workers had simply pooled resources to buy voting shares in their company, they would have come out much farther ahead.
The real reason that wages are so low is that there are too many people here with more coming each day. Law of supply and demand, remember?
Alternative Right.
I feel like the statistics are skewed by one or two markets, while obviously not the same market I live in a major Canadian city and no one I know in tech is earning near 135k USD.
"Underpaid" can mean a few things including "I'm not paid enough for the shit I have to put up with."
IT requires seeing some of the worst of humanity, working long hours, and facing constant competition from management which just wants to cut IT costs.
Maybe a solution is to find other ways to cut IT costs, like automating some of these mindless tasks...
Alternative Right.
I have any number of friends in technology fields and over the last 10 years I've heard the same story "We had layoffs and I wasn't cut but half my department is gone and now I'm doing the work of three or four people; working an extra 3-4 hours a day (and working at least one weekend a month) and I haven't had a raise in 3 years".
Company's are taking advantage of people like this, making them do the work of three or four people and work substantially more hours while paying them the same and basically saying "Just be glad you have a job!".
Actually, I should also say this is why most tech workers believe they are underpaid as they know of people in silicon valley earning twice or more their salary.
$135,000 is good outside of the bay area!
Cisco, Intel, Expedia, VMware and Microsoft employees were the most likely to say that they did not make enough money.
No kidding? Cisco, Intel, and VMWARE are located in Silicon Valley, where cost of living is astronomical. Expedia and Microsoft are in Bellevue, WA and Redmond, Wa, where the median cost of a home hovers around $900K.Toss in excessive unpaid overtime, and a person would be crazy not to consider themselves underpaid.
The goals of that IT workers union are something we all can agree on:
OVERVIEW
This document investigates the needs of Information Technology workers and the likely parameters of an IT Workers Union.
GOALS
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2. Sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.
Historically the goals of Unions have not always been about pay. the first Trade Unions (beyond mere guilds) in the USA were the Train Worker's union. Their the goals were about quality of life and longevity of careers. Their promise to the bussinesses was that in return they would be able to develop a more professional class of tranin worker and decrease expensive accidents. This actually did work out pretty well. Train workers were scheduled so they would return home every couple weeks rather than having to flop in railroad owned hotel-bars. The bars in the company owned flop houses were closed down. Merit based pay was insituted. And train wrecks did decrease and on-time schedules got better. It was only later that the collective bargaining began to focus on having worker's capture a larger slice of the profits. But even then Unions recognize that growing the pie was as important to wages as the slice of the pie they got. However like all things some weird dynamics set in, in which collective bargaining at Ford would set the wage rate at GM too. All ford cared about was making sure any price rise they incurred was felt by GM too and vica versa. Pass it along to the consumer. So Unions and management became less focused on keeping the company competitive as they could both pass along the costs. They paid dearly when foreign imports ate their lunch. As a results Unions got a bad name.
But the idea that a union can foster career development that benefits an industry as opposed to treating workers as disposable cattle is still valid.
However Millenials dont' seem to subscribe to the idea of career longevity. So Unions aren't going to happen in the IT industry.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
All the money that companies used to spend on technology went to marketing. We are on the age of "Bending Reality with Marketing" not on the age of actually doing things.
Carpenters, plumbers and electricians are in short supply because every high school counselor told students to get a college degree in programming for the last 30 years. A coworker who gave up IT to become a roofer and makes more money on a hot roof than inside a cold office.
The higher pay in California does not make them better off. I make about $130k but my house and other expenses are low and my quality of life blow my Cali colleagues out of the water--in the same company. They make more than me but barely scrape by driving old cars and shitty clothes...and they are always working on their expensive ass houses. Houses they are not proud of.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
I'm a EE. I worked in tech for 20 years. I only got a raise when I switched jobs, and worked comically hard for what I was paid.
I switched to finance and I started off making 2.5 times what I did doing engineering work. My next move will double what I make now again, maybe a little more.
If you're smart enough to do tech, you're smart enough to do something else. Do not work in tech as an employee. If you do, work only long enough to do something else or acquire enough capital to set yourself up to engage directly with the market - e.g. own your own company, be it software, consulting, or better yet, something like law or accounting and make use of the tech skills to lower overhead.
Folks have no idea how much money gets made. If they'd did they'd riot. Or at least unionize.
I'll be able to retire at 45. If I worked in tech, I'd still be struggling to have any savings.
YMMV and there are exceptions everywhere. Get a large enough sample pool and the trends are very clear.
..don't panic
Actually, I should also say this is why most tech workers believe they are underpaid as they know of people in silicon valley earning twice or more their salary.
I work for a large publicly traded company. Part of the federal regulation mandates that it publishes median employee compensation (excluding C level management). This raw number is meaningless because we have offices in multiple states within the US and multiple countries (not to mention it includes everything from Software Engineers to Receptionists). My own commutable area has two distinct areas: one averaging 90k per year and the other averaging 70k per year for "IT workers". Five years ago the areas were swapped.
If we work and save the company money, we don't get a bonus.
When overpaid CEOs save the company money, they get a bonus.
WTF.
#DeleteFacebook
I think if you ask anyone, they'd think they're being underpaid. Not just tech people, but anyone. From the small business owner who barely makes minimum wage (running a business is hard work), to the janitors who break their backs nightly mopping floors to the CEOs who always believe they need more.
I don't think there's anyone who would answer that they make enough money right now.
without money
And what happens when you buy stock in a company like General Motors and they fold the legal entity rendering the stock worthless? Or how about Hostess where they sold the brand and machinery so they could raid the pension fund and bust what was left of the Union?
Workers can't absorb the losses that ruling class have. And they can't buy off politicians the same way to get bail outs. The working class needs to organize or they lose. That's exactly what's happening now and what every single economist (who doesn't work for a right wing think tank) says is the cause of declining wages.
As for organized crime, would you shut down our banking system because sometimes somebody robs a bank? Or would you throw the bank robber in jail? The whole organized crime thing is a red herring to distract from the points I made above.
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Do you happen to enjoy strategy games? Thinking ahead of a way to achieve the goal and working through it? Your career can be a strategy game, or it can be a series of accidents.
> You're such a genius
If I were a genius, I might not *need* a strategy. As it is, I need a long-term strategy. Right now I'm working on a company that I selected two months ago. I plan to apply probably May 2019, a year after I selected where I wanted to work.
> The only card I have to play is to look for another job and make it clear I'm doing so. If they value me then they'll try to keep me around, if not then nothing of value was lost. Am I right?
That may not be your only card. Making it clear that you plan to leave may well mean you aren't considered for advancement - why invest in training you for the next thing if you're going to leave anyway?
> what the fuck am I SUPPOSED to do about it?
You could start by choosing your goal. Decide on your destination before choosing your route. You could select what kind of position you want and identify two or three companies you want to work for. Glassdoor is one good place to do research. Maybe the company you're actually working for (not the staffing agency) is a place you'd like to work, maybe not.
You can look carefully at the want ads for positions you'd like to have 1-5 years from now, making a list of the skills they want for those jobs. Once you have a list of which skills you need your resume to illustrate in order to get the job you want, you can probably figure out strategies to get the skills and experience that will land you the job you really want. You may be able to practice many of those skills at your current job, volunteering for tasks or projects that give you the experience your next employer is looking for.
an average of $135,000 and yet, a survey of 6,000 tech workers conducted by workplace app Blind and reported by Quartz found that over 60 percent feel they aren't being paid enough.
The AVERAGE includes all those rockstars who make millions and the near-retirement specialists who are the last surviving member who knows just WTF is going on and the company cannot survive without them. Also all the millionaires in SanFran who can't afford a lean-to dilapidated shack. You'd be wanting to look at the median, and even then split it out across different cities or different Cost-of-Living rates. And (all?) those old companies have workers across the globe.
Listen, statistics is hard. Sociology even harder. This is a bullshit sub-journalist blip just made to start an argument. It's not science.
I doubt you usually work over 15 hours a day, 7 days a week. And if you do, it's because you aren't any good at your job, which a competent person would be able to do in less than half the time.
Either way, you don't need to be paid more.