How Much Software Engineers ACTUALLY Make

How much do software engineers actually make? There are many variables that dictate this: experience level, company at which you work (including their industry), location, and the specific programming technologies and languages you use - as well as your ability to negotiate yourself a higher salary.

Well in today's video, not only are we going to look at the visuals for the median salary based on those individual variables, but also the top salaries in each level of experience (so entry-level software engineer, mid-level software engineer, senior software engineer, staff software engineer, and principal software engineer), what companies are paying those top salaries, and the breakdown of base salary, stock, and bonus - all beautifully visualized.

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and more but i forgot what they were called

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[DKNY]

No, the median is not that high. The data is from level which is only large FANG companies. All the engineers working at a banking, retail, manufacturing, etc. companies are not included

[dalagamble]

A lot of the companies who are now hiring lowered the offering salary since the layoffs . Like meta for example. They lowered their salary since last year by 10k.

[TheRussianGenius]

When you said "at least give it a like" The like button glowed up. Never had that happen before on YT

[godmodeon]

Levels fyi is biased in the right skewed compensation segment of an already right-skewed career. This is self-reported values of disproportionately FAANG-tier engineers.

The median software engineer is not making anything near 170k.

Everyone in these comments can relax now.

Why would you make a video for which you have absolutely no subject experience?

As a now engineer in the realm of the demographic being discussed, I started at like 1/4th of the compensation I have now. These videos are going to do nothing but set unrealistic expectations and lead people down a hole of depression.

[JasonTaylor-poxc]

Working for a FAANG is not the norm - basically like ivy league for colleges but they do impact the averages. Also, salary or comp is only one part of the benefits package. Some companies have great benefits that should not be overlooked. For example, I worked for a niche IT consulting firm that paid 100% of health care premiums for family coverage on a decent HMO plan on a major network - basically a $20k+ yearly benefit (yes, good health care is expensive). When they were acquired by a major consulting firm and had to adopt their benefits plans, a similar coverage cost me over $800 per month (nearly $10k per year) as the employee. This is important to keep in mind when comparing similar offers.

[neomangeo]

Remember guys, this is data just mainly from the most high end tech companies. The vast, vast, majority of companies don't fall under this bracket. Also yes, the reason the comp is so high in some of those really big companies like google etc is the stocks, but the base salary isn't hugely impressive really (not that I wouldn't mind it!).

[stevendeclercq]

thanks for being a straight shooter and saying data off the bat... liked and subscribed

[icandreamstream]

Lmao no they don’t, you forgot about the 400k layoffs over the last year and a half and now people are coming back to large pay decreases. Stop setting false expectations to students who will be majorly disappointed.

[fenril]

This REALLY depends on the type of software engineer. Software Engineers educated in Machine Learning with a Masters or have some type of specialty such as embedded systems are going to be making the most right now. The jobs that are decreasing and have wage stagnation are mostly stuff like front end and web devs. There are just too many of those. Supply and Demand for job market is king when it comes to baseline wages.

[genericdeveloper]

As an American who has been applying to software jobs for several years, I know the median isn't that high.

[ergohash]

from what i saw its "across the globe average software dev salary = X amount. USA's dev salary = 2X or 3X amount".

[tonykaze]

It's quite strange, but also kindof not surprising that salaries here in Japan for software engineers of comparable skill level are paid about 30-40% of US equivalents.

[Jeff]

This is wrong. From BLS data it's $127, 260 median.

[andraslacatos]

From someone outside the US: are these salaries pre-tax? If yes, what is the approximate amount after taxes? Do you know of any website covering this topic in the EU in greater detail?

[joshheaps]

Wildly inaccurate. 5 years experience mid level engineer here, I can't find a job paying more than ~80k

[gabrielmartinez]

Definitely not that high, companies are hiring Indian developers in huge numbers, so that lowers the salary for US based developers.

[piyushaggarwal]

Starting salary for entry level software engineer in India is 5000$. PER YEAR.

[spaces]

It's way off. It's about 121K including benefits.

[whiskey]

This is all fang companies lmao not regular companies. its probably fair to say 80-130 is a better range. Then as you get more senior 130-200+ but ymmv based on a number of factors like location, negotiation skill, jumping companies, skill level etc.

[liam]

Had a company offer me $200k yesterday...told them I'm looking for at least $3.5 million. Those suckers won't lowball me and get away with it!

(obv a joke)