In Silicon Valley wages are down for everyone but the top 10 percent

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18212980" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18212980</a>

They don&#x27;t make it clear in the article, but presumably the top 10 percent of salaries includes most&#x2F;all developers?<p>It&#x27;s not really surprising that the heart of the tech industry (which drives a large part of the modern economy) would have very wide disparity between service workers and highly skilled specialists working for companies making massive amount of revenue.

My takeaway is that the people in the middle get screwed the most (in terms of wages vs. inflation). The poor are still poor, the rich are still rich, and the middle gets thinner as those within the group are either pushed towards the poor side (higher probability) or rich side (lower probability).<p>I&#x27;m not an economist, so feel free to enlighten me further on my speculations.

It&#x27;s important to note that these studies over time don&#x27;t include the same people. The Silicon Valley wage earners from 1997 overlap with the today&#x27;s population only slightly.<p>I think a more telling study would be on an individual basis. Someone earning X in Silicon Valley 20 years ago is earning Y today.

The referenced UCSC report doesn&#x27;t seem to be cited or linked from TFA. A brief and the full report are both linked from here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ucsc.edu&#x2F;2018&#x2F;10&#x2F;benner-tightrope.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ucsc.edu&#x2F;2018&#x2F;10&#x2F;benner-tightrope.html</a>

Only ~9% left to optimize!

Of course, with the caveat that its adjusted for inflation. For example, in 1997, minimum wage in California was $5&#x2F;hour, and in 2018 it&#x27;s $10.50-$11&#x2F;hour [0]. So, minimum wage workers are making over double in current dollars, which the article claims is a 1% decrease in real wages, which would be more accurately described as &quot;flat&quot;, not &quot;down&quot;.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dir.ca.gov&#x2F;iwc&#x2F;MinimumWageHistory.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dir.ca.gov&#x2F;iwc&#x2F;MinimumWageHistory.htm</a>

Most software developers really aren’t making that much. If you can’t make it into FANG companies or can’t be a founder, find a different career