Are programmers underpaid, or executives overpaid?
Summary: The average US programmer's salary increased 8.7% in 2006, but bonuses for executives were up 58.8% in the same period. Where do I sign up?
Now this is really unfair. According to IT Facts, the average US programmer's salary increased 8.7% in 2006, but bonuses for executives were up 58.8% in the same period:
The average annual cash bonus was $3,773,715, compared to third period year 2005 cash bonus levels of $2,375,615. The August 2006 Index indicates that while base salaries decreased slightly, bonuses were up sharply resulting in an average total cash compensation per executive of $5,049,623.
Where do I sign up?
Seriously, breaking into the "executive path" seems to be fairly difficult. Every executive opening I've seen requires... you guessed it... executive experience. What's a programmer who's already at the top of his or her development track to do?
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Talkback
Start his own company of course
No one ever hired Bill Gates or Michael Dell as an executive. They hired themselves.
Like Bill it helps if you have a rich daddy (nt)
And a company like IBM...
we should outsource executives to India
Haven't seen a 3% raise in 8 years
It's the Dilbert principle at work.
There's a Dilbert principle that goes something like this: How far up the corporate ladder you go depends upon you level of incompetence. The average person may make it to middle management. The smartest ones are relegated to the mailrooms or cleanning crews. The biggest boobs run the company, and if someone is a really dumb f[patch], they can be President of the USA.
Nice system, huh?
Mis-stating the Dilbert Principle
This competes with the Peter Principle: People are promoted to their level of incompetence and stay there.
If someone can do a job, he is promoted. Eventually he attains a job he can't do, so he is left in that position to fail.
I will nominate a third Principle: People selected for promotion are inferior versions of the people who make the promotions.
The likeness makes the person doing the promoting comfortable. The inferiority makes him even more comfortable because there's no threat to his job.
Give any organization enough time, and the inferiority will sink to entire incompetence.