I'm a SWE, my TC is 55k a year I live in Costa Rica. The average salary in Costa Rica is around 10k a year The average salary in the US is 53k according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) I'm making 5.5 times more than the average Costa Rican. If I were in the US making 5.5 times the average salary I would be making 291k a year. Does it make sense to think that I could make 5.5 times the average salary in the US if I were to work in the US in a HCOL area? Or the macro economics factors + inequality in my country plays a huge role here? What could be a closer guess? I have the highest TC between all my friends with same YOE and degree. YOE: 2
Why not just check out levels.fyi data of VMware?
Because the market is not as competitive, VMware is already one of the highest paying companies here, we don't have Google, Facebook, Netflix, Apple or any important startups that can create higher averages while competing for talent
In my country average salary is 15k. I make about 200k. In the US I'd get around 400k for the same company and level. So it doesn't scale linearly, global market and remote opportunities are reducing the difference in IT compared to other professions
How many YOE do you have to make that much with a low average ? 😮 The highest TC I've seen here is 110k with 18 YOE
PhD + 9. But I know a person with close to 1M in my country. What's the secret: in big tech, base salary is adjusted to COL, but stock awards are adjusted much less (they're just about 20% lower than in US). So, when you're in a high enough position, such that majority of your compensation is coming from stocks, your comp is becoming much closer to your US peers
The more important question is how much $55k buys you in Costa Rica. Average salary only tells you how you compare to the average quality of life in Costa Rica, but I have no idea what that is compared to the average American lifestyle.
I can buy an average house every 2 years saving 100% of my income, I can save around 85% of it I'm already in the process of buying a house all cash
That's pretty sweet. Its a bit harder in the Bay Area where an average house is around $1.5-2M now. I could buy one every year and a half, if I didn't have to pay any taxes. I actually have to pay close to half in taxes, so make it every 3 years. And I am spending $200k a year on divorce related expenses in after tax dollars. So maybe every 5-6 years. So maybe not so great to come here after all, hehe.
It’s more about yoe and the company and the location With 2 yoe in SF, there’s a chance you could touch 300k but it’s not the norm. If you’re a senior engineer (L5), you can target 350k-450k