Am I underpaid?
I make 80k living in Los Angeles with not so fantastic benefits. I have a BS in Comp Sci from a fairly highly ranked university (top 50). I have worked remotely for a small company since I graduated for a little over a year on a team of 3 (myself and two superiors). Since I am remote I was not given any kind of relocation bonus (but I have to move anyways because the other option is living with my parents??) or stock options. Our 401k match and quarterly bonuses are very minimal. I am not expecting more than 2-3% raise yearly. I do full stack work (react/angular, node, mysql/crm integration) including CI and testing for an application our clients use. I have been making very large decisions about the product since day 1, and have been relied on in making some infrastructure decisions across the entire company. I feel like the things I am doing are well above my pay grade (some of which is understandable because the company is smaller) especially compared to the things my friends are doing at the larger companies they joined for a similar or higher pay. While the hours are fairly relaxed and low stress, I can't help but feel underpaid. Am I underpaid?
Yes you should change to new company
I think you already know the answer. Yes.
I didn't which is why I asked, but I appreciate your input
My landscaper has a higher TC
Lmao
Yes. I have a significantly higher salary alone living in the Phoenix AZ area, CoL is much lower here. Go work for Google or Amazon if you want to stay in LA, they have a presence there. Expect +30% salary bump at least.
Thanks for the reply. I don't want to stay here. They are also not compensating for where I live obviously so if I was working where the company is based the CoL would be more similar to Phoenix. I am likely moving and/or looking for new work to cope with CoL soon.
If you actively want to move and are open to new places, check out cities like Tulsa which have some incentives for remote workers to move there. Like 10k for housing, etc.
Oh God yes. You're making 25% of what you can potentially make at FANG.
I am probably also not nearly as stressed about work as I might be at FAANG either. I don't really have much desire to work at such a big company either. I think I can probably still do a bit better as a fairly talented dev at a small-medium sized company though. Thanks for your input.
It's all relative. Is 80k for 1YOE low? Not really. I wish I was making 80k at 22-23yo. For most that takes years, it is more than the average US family income. Now relative to the workload and industry and fact you get no equity? Probably yes you are underpaid. Could you make more if you were able to get a job at FAANG? Yes most assuredly. But do you want to? The answer is to always do your diligence and look at other jobs. Or have a direct conversation with your boss about workload vs comp and why you have no equity. Lot of variables. No right answer IMO.
Thanks for the input!
80k for 1 year of experience for a remote position is ok. Time to move now or in another year.
If you go to a bigger company, you will earn more and possibly work less, so it all depends. With a smaller company, you will wear mutiple hats, so you will end up learning way more. It depends on what you value the most, good amount of interesting work or rest and vest? Up to u
Thank you for answering without being a prick