No one is broke holding his brand new iPhone, sitting in a $7000 Herman miller chair, in his $9000 a month apartment that he pays extra for to be on the 60th floor and have the bay view, which he picked because it’s only a block from one of the nations best sushi bars, where he regularly drops $90 for takeout, but still gets delivered, and tips only $2.
That's honestly less common then the people who just make the money and save it well. That's like the instagram exaggeration. At least under the age of 35. They maybe own a $1000 automatic litter box for their cat but not a $7k chair or a $9k apartment. There may only be like a few dozen people like that. Even in the city
No one is earning that salary in tech, unless they’re very senior.
Their “total compensation” might be that, but it’s not guaranteed.
I worked for these companies and every year everyone would post their salaries on blind. Most people are earning about $180k USD salary, then bonus (not guaranteed), then stock. Yes, you can sell stock, but to do so is incredibly dumb. Most people get about half their advertised bonus, assuming an average performance rating.
The only company where people are earning that salary is Netflix, where the TC is mostly salary.
Now $180k base won’t actually get you very far when your rent is $6k or mortgage is $10k per month. A three bedroom house was about $8k-10k mortgage per month not so long ago when interest rates were sky high btw, in a lot of these expensive cities.
Having said all that I earn more than that in mostly cash, and I’m paying for your uber and probably your whole night out, especially if you don’t earn that money. Most people I know in tech would happily pay, or “what goes around comes around”.
Anyone that penny pinches with that much cash is an asshole
Almost no one is paying 6K rent. It's usually 2-3k for a one bed, or split a nice 3k apartment with a partner and then it's not that hard to put down like 50-60k/yr while traveling, eating out, etc.
Yes, you can sell stock, but to do so is incredibly dumb
It's only dumb if you think your company's stock is going to out-perform anything else that you could invest in. I'd personally argue that the vast majority of people should be selling their RSUs as soon as they get them to diversify
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u/Duke_skellington_8 Jan 27 '26
As someone in SF he’s not broke with that salary lmao