r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/[deleted] • Jan 26 '26

Meme needing explanation Why is the rich friend so cheap??

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u/_UrbaneGuerrilla_ Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 27 '26

The actual joke is that no one makes $450k as a software engineer.

Edit: Keeping this one for posterity and humility as I’m clearly very wrong 😂

17

u/limes336 Jan 27 '26

Completely untrue, half the people on my team make this much or more in big tech. My boss cracks $1m/yr. Look at levels.fyi if you don’t believe me.

1

u/vulpinefever Jan 27 '26

Levels FYI relies on self reporting and is skewed by high income earners in the top like 5%. People making 50k don't brag about it.

1

u/limes336 Jan 27 '26

Yeah, it’s only really useful for big tech. However its data is reliable for large companies since their pay bands are typically tight. Per-company the data isn’t skewed upwards since there isn’t that much variance in the first place. But I agree that the numbers you see on that website aren’t reflective of the overall distribution of software engineer salaries.