It's only a thing in the US, in specific cities where big tech companies are present and poaching people from each other.
These jobs with big rates have a few things in common:
- Salaries aren't the only thing that have inflated price tags in the places where you might hope to get those. Rents, mortages, and cost of living are expensive there too. You kind of need 2x-3x what you'd need somewhere else. More for some places. Basically, you pay more for less for most things that matter.
- Those big rates are fairly hard to get for any random person. You have to be able to sit up be a good little code minion, do your code exercises perfectly, climb corporate ladders, kiss the right asses, etc. And you have to keep that up for many years. Not everyone can do that. Or even pretend to enjoy doing that.
- There's no such thing as a free lunch. These companies want value for money. The big salary is the carrot that they dangle in front of you. But they don't give it to everyone. They give it to some so they can give far less to the rest of the crowd. The median is nowhere near the top of the range.
- It's a pretty exclusive club that gets these wages. The exclusivity is what buys compliance from those outside that club. Max salaries are insane. Median ones, not so much. In SFO, median salary is still high but not high enough to live there comfortably.
- It's a corporate rat race. With all the negative effects as well. Like toxic work culture. Political games and a lot of tech bros (let's face it, equality is a problematic topic) slapping each other on the back and over using words like "awesome". This kind of behavior is common fiercely competitive places. It isn't necessarily very nice to deal with or be around such people. And it attracts people that are good at that kind of thing. I.e. sociopaths.
These jobs with big rates have a few things in common:
- Salaries aren't the only thing that have inflated price tags in the places where you might hope to get those. Rents, mortages, and cost of living are expensive there too. You kind of need 2x-3x what you'd need somewhere else. More for some places. Basically, you pay more for less for most things that matter.
- Those big rates are fairly hard to get for any random person. You have to be able to sit up be a good little code minion, do your code exercises perfectly, climb corporate ladders, kiss the right asses, etc. And you have to keep that up for many years. Not everyone can do that. Or even pretend to enjoy doing that.
- There's no such thing as a free lunch. These companies want value for money. The big salary is the carrot that they dangle in front of you. But they don't give it to everyone. They give it to some so they can give far less to the rest of the crowd. The median is nowhere near the top of the range.
- It's a pretty exclusive club that gets these wages. The exclusivity is what buys compliance from those outside that club. Max salaries are insane. Median ones, not so much. In SFO, median salary is still high but not high enough to live there comfortably.
- It's a corporate rat race. With all the negative effects as well. Like toxic work culture. Political games and a lot of tech bros (let's face it, equality is a problematic topic) slapping each other on the back and over using words like "awesome". This kind of behavior is common fiercely competitive places. It isn't necessarily very nice to deal with or be around such people. And it attracts people that are good at that kind of thing. I.e. sociopaths.