As top talent who received primarily ‘peanut butter’ raises for many years, I never much minded that. No amount of salary would have made me able to afford housing near work in sfbay, and I cared much more that my employer fire the incompetent (which, for a time, they tended to do) than I minded being paid less to work with a better crew. When I decided to leave, I did so because leadership had shifted so much that they had stopped enforcing competence as a matter of policy. Pay was simply not a factor so long as it covered the basics, and I refused to let it be used as a bribe.

> No amount of salary would have made me able to afford housing near work in sfbay

I assure you there are people who live there who can afford to do so because they make enough money. Switching from startup salary to bigco at the same experience level in the same location doubled my comp. A few promotions later and it doubled again. That's when housing started to look affordable.

> No amount of salary would have made me able to afford housing near work

Everyone who sells themselves short also sells everyone else short too by comparable TC.

I was hired IC5 $280k TC at Meta in 2020 with the help of a salary negotiator/coach and had an EDTX IP lawyer do due-diligence and walkthrough with me the hiring document terms. That would just barely qualify me for 50% D/I for the house I grew up in. It'd take a minimum of $470k to afford the house my grandparents bought in 1968 for $30k. And, unlike my parents and grandparents who pulled up the ladder behind them, I wouldn't get CA Prop. 13 like they did. But what's crazy is I could instead live in a car or on a boat for about 6-8 years and then buy an SV house with liquidated proceeds of investments outright.

> I cared much more that my employer fire the incompetent

This is magical thinking and not your problem. I don't understand why you think you're not worth being paid a livable salary.

As an alternative, move somewhere cheaper rather than futility compete with a surplus of rich people and NIMBYs whom prevent development.

Isn’t this almost the same? In both cases, it feels unfair that you are paid the same as someone lesser. In your case, the lesser is a -1X developer, and in the article, I guess the 10Xer compares themselves with a 1Xer. I’m at least thinking that a 10Xer wouldn’t mind a similar bump in pay compared to a 7Xer, but somewhere you draw the line as unfair.

In my opinion, management should cull -1Xers, while also trying to reward top talent, even if it has it’s downsides.

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