1. Inflation. Laggard companies haven't kept up, but leading companies are pushing forward. As for the laggards, they probably set their developer salaries back in 1995 when $45k, out of college, was decent for a software engineer. They never revised that number, instead suffering a very gradual (and probably imperceptible, from a day-to-day perspective) decline in the people they could get.
2. Correction. Talent has been underpriced for a long time, except in finance, where the hours and work sucked. For a long time, rising tech companies could low-ball their offers and say, "Yes, but we're a fun company, and if we get big, you'll get rich." At this point, that strategy doesn't work as well, because new startups have filled that niche (risky, low pay, might make you very rich). Google and Amazon are still great companies, but they're not likely to triple their stock value in the next 3 years.
What's also happening is that the US is becoming less of a destination country for foreign talent, due to post-2001 immigration hassles and our health care situation, which scares the hell out of people. This change is good and bad, but it does improve salaries.
3. Location + industry. Engineer-driven companies, which are very selective and desirable places to work, but treat engineers very well, are offering $90-110k in New York, Boston and the Valley, and $70-90k in the Midwest. On the other hand, programmers at oil and health insurance companies are not making that much; they're still in the $45-60k range, because programmers are second- and third-class citizens in those companies. For example, a friend of mine works in fashion as a programmer (entry-level/novice) and makes about $28k. If she did the same work in a real software shop, she'd make $70k easily.
1. Inflation. Laggard companies haven't kept up, but leading companies are pushing forward. As for the laggards, they probably set their developer salaries back in 1995 when $45k, out of college, was decent for a software engineer. They never revised that number, instead suffering a very gradual (and probably imperceptible, from a day-to-day perspective) decline in the people they could get.
2. Correction. Talent has been underpriced for a long time, except in finance, where the hours and work sucked. For a long time, rising tech companies could low-ball their offers and say, "Yes, but we're a fun company, and if we get big, you'll get rich." At this point, that strategy doesn't work as well, because new startups have filled that niche (risky, low pay, might make you very rich). Google and Amazon are still great companies, but they're not likely to triple their stock value in the next 3 years.
What's also happening is that the US is becoming less of a destination country for foreign talent, due to post-2001 immigration hassles and our health care situation, which scares the hell out of people. This change is good and bad, but it does improve salaries.
3. Location + industry. Engineer-driven companies, which are very selective and desirable places to work, but treat engineers very well, are offering $90-110k in New York, Boston and the Valley, and $70-90k in the Midwest. On the other hand, programmers at oil and health insurance companies are not making that much; they're still in the $45-60k range, because programmers are second- and third-class citizens in those companies. For example, a friend of mine works in fashion as a programmer (entry-level/novice) and makes about $28k. If she did the same work in a real software shop, she'd make $70k easily.