‘In Silicon Valley a newly graduated developer earns $100 000’
This week, Silicon Valley has been in the spotlight: an employee of support service Yelp Talia Jane published An Open Letter to CEO in which she complained about too low salary. Two hours after, she was fired, and the story became the most discussed in San Francisco. Therefore, the columnist of Realnoe Vremya Aleksander Galkin continues to tell about employment in the largest IT-companies in Silicon Valley. Last time he wrote about how they recruit specialists. Today, he tells about how much engineers earn and what are the carrots the companies offer the employees.
Job offer
When an interview is successfully passed, then goes the next step: preparation for a job offer. At this point, a company assesses 'market value' of a candidate, as well as the costs in the event of the change of the employer. Based on these data they determine the level of wage and 'bonuses' that will be offered. The 'value' assessment process is probably the most difficult in the whole process of finding employees.
Well, what is a job offer? First of all, it indicates how much the candidate will earn. It is so-called base salary, which is usually determined for a year and divided by 24 payments every two weeks. This money (after taxes) the candidate will earn anyway, regardless of how well or poorly he or she would work during the year.
Usually, a newly graduated developer earns about $100 000 per year before taxes. After taxes, it is about $65 000 — $70 000. Senior Developer earns $150 000 — $180 000, but pays more taxes (the US tax is progressive). The head of a medium group of developers (25-30 people) can get from $250 000 to $300 000 and more. Base salary is reviewed each year on the results of work and may increase by 3-7%.
In addition to the basic salary, usually they stipulate a bonus: a percentage of annual salary that a candidate gets if he or she works successfully during the year and fulfills all the tasks having been set before him by his head. The bonus for engineers ranges from 0 to 20%, for major executives it can be higher. The higher the proficiency level of an employee, the more people and projects depend on him, the wider framework within which is the bonus amount. If for an average engineer to get the bonus it is sufficient to fulfill all the tasks, for a major executive it is essential that all members of his or her team successfully complete their part of the work, and only then his or her task would be accomplished.
Move expenses coverage
One of the important points of a job offer is bearing of charges of moving of a new employee from his of her current place of residence to the city where the employer is (relocation package). Large companies bear all direct and indirect costs associated with the move.
For moves from abroad, particularly from Russia and Europe to Silicon Valley, all the property is usually transported by sea in a big 20-feet container and is installed in place of the new residence in the same form in which everything was packed before. During the journey, the employee is also provided with a free car and an apartment for the first time (30-45 days).
What is more, many companies also pay to buy things, which he or she couldn't transfer: washing machines, refrigerators and so on. Most home appliances manufactured outside the US will not work in the US because of the differences in voltage in an electrical network.
Health insurance
An important part which an employee in the US gets is a health insurance. Most large companies pay for their employees' medical insurance, including insurance for their families. In smaller companies the employees pay for themselves.
Extra perks
In spite of base salary and health insurance, companies also provide with some other small perks. They are free breakfast, lunch or dinner, free beverages and fruits, pay for the fare in the municipal transport to work and back, pay for membership in a sports club or gym, the payment of expenses for the purchase and repair of bicycles and other incidentals associated with the work.
Besides, large companies often have an agreement that on their territory at certain intervals employees can have a haircut, test their cars and bikes, as well as do laundry and dry cleaning. In some companies, by agreement with the manager, you can even study at University, getting a degree or expanding your specialization. Not all these services are provided free of charge, but very often the company pay for at least some part of the cost.
Keeping gifted people
In addition to offering a good compensation, companies are also interested in the employees to work for them for a long time. This specialist is usually proposed some fixed amount of money when signing a contract on the first working day. This amount, in the case of large companies, an employee is given not in money, but in shares of the company. A the same time, he or she does not get this share immediately, but within 5 or even 10 years, with the transfer of the shares every six months or a year. Thus, if an employee works not more than three to five years in the company, he or she will not lose that part of the amount that he or she has not got yet in shares. That is how they try to attract specialists to work at least 4-5 years at one company.
In addition to initial amount, often the bonus is given partly in shares of the company, certain payments are distributed during 5 years with a payment once or twice a year. The longer you work in the company, the more various not deposited shares you have, and the more you can lose in case of leaving the company. Major executives and managers often get bonuses in shares, that is why they are more loyal to the company, they cannot easily go from one corporation to another.
Savings for retirement
Another bonus is the support of investments in private pension funds. In the USA, there is no compulsory retirement pension or superannuation, so everyone is interested in saving money for his or her retirement. Many companies support this behavior of their employees and, if the latter sign a contract for a long time, then the employer pays a certain percentage to the amount the employee puts into their retirement fund (401k match).
Besides, employers can also pay various insurances for their employees. For example, in a case of disability, in a case of a sudden death, unemployment insurance, insurance for legal consultation with counsel and so on.
And yet, the wage is not always the main criterion for a candidate decision. As Douglas Crockford noted, one of the developers of the JavaScript language, programmers are very difficult children, and therefore in the first place a candidate is offered projects that attract him or her personally. Because if you're genuinely interested, you will work at peak performance.
Reference
Galkin Aleksander Vladimirovich – a development engineer at Microsoft; an administrator and a bureaucrat of Wikipedia in Esperanto; polyglot.
- Born 26 February 1979, in Kazan.
- In 1996, graduated with a gold medal school No. 102 in Kazan.
- In 2002, with honours graduated from the Pediatric Faculty of the Kazan State Medical University.
- From 2002 to 2005 he worked at the Institute of Neurobiology in Berlin.
- In 2012, graduated from the Technical University of Hamburg.
- Since 2013 works in the company Microsoft as an engineer (Software Development Engineer), in the division of the search engine Bing. The office is located in Sunnyvale, California.
- Speaks fluently Russian, Tatar, English, German, French and Esperanto. Also speaks Italian and Spanish.
- An author of articles on various topics on habrahabr.ru, geektimes.ru, pikabu.ru.