How much money do you earn? And how do you spend it?

[Pho3nix]

I'm answering this one anonymously.
I have been at the company for 5 years now, and I basically run the companies I.T. by myself, which includes over 200 field staff and 20 office staff. I just got told a friend of mine who does miles less than me (similar job) gets paid almost the same as me. Something's very wrong here. Im also 35 now, so my salary situation is seriously depressing me.

14k before deductions.
Rent: R6k
Food: R1.5k
Internet: R1k
Debt: R1.5k
Tech Subs: R400
Petrol: R600 +/-
Smokes R800
Leaves me with about R700 left over.

Up skill and move to another company if possible.

 

[Toxxyc]

Wow, most of you guys earn more than my wife and I combined. Easily.

 

[Ancalagon]

saw a cv today of a guy earning 95k.. 4th job in 4yrs (total exp).. ordinary web app & mobile full stack i guess.. but with every job the stack changed so i lol'd

How do you get up to R95k in 4 years? Holy crap! Does he have a PhD or something?

 

[Hamster]

Front: Angular, Android, Ionic
Middle/Back: Springboot
Lang: java, c/c++, c#, python, typescript

Anyway.. my point was this.. 4yrs with 12 month job hop. I've done job hop 1.5-2yrs initially but part of it was due to contract or situational. A typical junior takes 3-6months before they start delivering on own.. fast forward to a more mature setting with tech stack changing.. if you hoping ever 12 months.. that means u need to be delivering value by end of month 1 or 2 (I usually aim for 1 month). Now when does he learn the new stack and show value ? And then if he is leaving at month 12 that means he might not have seen consequences of bad dev because he is gone when the stuff hit the fan

i dunno maybe i'm just old or like the long haul where you prove yourself over time instead of impressing in interview but hopeless. Might be why most of jobs are via ref or network and rarely via interview (unless old school dev types).

PS. Post getting experience with good software eng.. slapping on newer frameworks and pushing salary upward happens fast from what i've seen,

Reason I ask is be a we had a similar guy: 4 jobs in 4 years asking a high salary and he had every single front end tech out there listed as his skills.

I agree with you, so much so that I'd offer him a juniors salary be a he has most like done fokol of real value.

Pay jumper.

 

[TofuMofu]

I'm answering this one anonymously.
I have been at the company for 5 years now, and I basically run the companies I.T. by myself, which includes over 200 field staff and 20 office staff. I just got told a friend of mine who does miles less than me (similar job) gets paid almost the same as me. Something's very wrong here. Im also 35 now, so my salary situation is seriously depressing me.

14k before deductions.
Rent: R6k
Food: R1.5k
Internet: R1k
Debt: R1.5k
Tech Subs: R400
Petrol: R600 +/-
Smokes R800
Leaves me with about R700 left over.

Quit smoking. Extra R800 right there.

Also, speak to your manager/boss about an increase or you should look at other companies. Doesn't sound like a fair salary at all

 

[Hamster]

How do you get up to R95k in 4 years? Holy crap! Does he have a PhD or something?

Banks or naive ex-contractors.

He doesn't have it, he wants it.

Bank scenario: sits on R75k but gets 25 days leave, reduced interest rates and other perks. Reckons with an increase R95k is fair.

 

[Ancalagon]

Banks or naive ex-contractors.

He doesn't have it, he wants it.

Bank scenario: sits on R75k but gets 25 days leave, reduced interest rates and other perks. Reckons with an increase R95k is fair.

Oh I saw that was his asking price. But still, R75k after 4 years is damn good money.

 

[Hamster]

Oh I saw that was his asking price. But still, R75k after 4 years is damn good money.

It's ridiculous. There should be a law that junior and inter devs are not allowed to work at banks....to protect them from themselves.

 

[Johnatan56]

It's ridiculous. There should be a law that junior and inter devs are not allowed to work at banks....to protect them from themselves.

I don't know, I think it's just ridiculous how low salaries are in South Africa.
Looking at Germany, https://www.payscale.com/research/DE/Job=Junior_Software_Engineer/Salary

So R50k/month should be the norm, unsure whether the above is before/after taxes, if after the bank's salary is normal. Note that they also get retirement subtracted.
But yes, that dude is asking quite a bit, he'd have to be pretty good to get hired at that, but if he can contribute more than his salary, is there really an issue? Worst case you keep declining.

Meanwhile I just started my first job here, I'll be earning around the 2k EUR mark at 23, I declined a ~30% higher option (40k) at an insurance place because I don't want to sit 2h+ in traffic, and hoping the company I'm heading to will have fast pay raise once I start contributing a couple of months down the line.

So earning:
R31k
RA ~ R5k
Car - will be around the R10k mark, aiming to pay it off in a year so will be higher some months and hoping a raise will help pay it off. This amount is dependent on me though, family loan, so will be paying back prime - 2 (or same rate as bond).
Petrol: R500, maybe a little less. This versus my previous R2k... contemplating investing in a bicycle.
Medical aid + gym: not too sure, still deciding, probably R2.5k all-in.
Rent: R3k
Food: R2k including lunch if I continue as-is.

So R2k to play around with on anything else after taxes, if I don't use it, that will be thrown at paying the car off faster once I have a month's buffer.
And still have some work on the side where I have money coming in, so hoping that goes well.

Taxes are still insanely high, especially comparing to first-world countries...

 

[Hamster]

So R50k/month should be the norm

For somebody with no track record? Get out of here.

 

[Johnatan56]

For somebody with no track record? Get out of here.

You missed my point entirely I think.

 

[^^vampire^^]

I don't know, I think it's just ridiculous how low salaries are in South Africa.
Looking at Germany, https://www.payscale.com/research/DE/Job=Junior_Software_Engineer/Salary
View attachment 755968
So R50k/month should be the norm, unsure whether the above is before/after taxes, if after the bank's salary is normal. Note that they also get retirement subtracted.
But yes, that dude is asking quite a bit, he'd have to be pretty good to get hired at that, but if he can contribute more than his salary, is there really an issue? Worst case you keep declining.

Meanwhile I just started my first job here, I'll be earning around the 2k EUR mark at 23, I declined a ~30% higher option (40k) at an insurance place because I don't want to sit 2h+ in traffic, and hoping the company I'm heading to will have fast pay raise once I start contributing a couple of months down the line.

So earning:
R31k
RA ~ R5k
Car - will be around the R10k mark, aiming to pay it off in a year so will be higher some months and hoping a raise will help pay it off. This amount is dependent on me though, family loan, so will be paying back prime - 2 (or same rate as bond).
Petrol: R500, maybe a little less. This versus my previous R2k... contemplating investing in a bicycle.
Medical aid + gym: not too sure, still deciding, probably R2.5k all-in.
Rent: R3k
Food: R2k including lunch if I continue as-is.

So R2k to play around with on anything else after taxes, if I don't use it, that will be thrown at paying the car off faster once I have a month's buffer.
And still have some work on the side where I have money coming in, so hoping that goes well.

Taxes are still insanely high, especially comparing to first-world countries...

It's all part and parcel of where you live. You may be correct now that SA cost of living over the last 5 years has sky rocketed but before that it was cheap to live in SA. The legacy of economy and wages in SA is not going to rapidly increase and so people will struggle. As a comparison you get your domestic full time 5 days a week at maybe R4000-R5000 a month if you're being generous in SA. The equivalent here in Aus would cost me over R50k/$5000 a month which would be like 2/3 of what I get as a skilled professional. Elaborate that across any field/service in the first world and you get paid more in these places because everyone earns a fair living wage and so you need to be able to afford that to spur on the economy.

 

[Toxxyc]

If I net a R95k job, my wife can stop working and look after our kid full time, and I'll still have a few times more than my salary on the other end LOL.

 

[Priapus]

If I net a R95k job, my wife can stop working and look after our kid full time, and I'll still have a few times more than my salary on the other end LOL.

Net 95k would go along way. My wife, wouldn't stop working though. Even if we were millionaires; she'd still work.

 

[TheChamp]

Net 95k would go along way. My wife, wouldn't stop working though. Even if we were millionaires; she'd still work.

There's more to working than money for some people, I had a guy who threw a massive tantrum when the company decided that they no longer need us over the festive period, the guy has a paid up house, has never cashed his shares ever, plenty of money in the bank, but he still caused a scene, a massive one.

I think work probably means a lot more to him than we realised, he caught all of us off guard with his reaction.

 

[clickingbuttons]

Net 95k would go along way. My wife, wouldn't stop working though. Even if we were millionaires; she'd still work.

They tend to go crazy when they're idle so props

 

[Priapus]

There's more to working than money for some people, I had a guy who threw a massive tantrum when the company decided that they no longer need us over the festive period, the guy has a paid up house, has never cashed his shares ever, plenty of money in the bank, but he still caused a scene, a massive one.

I think work probably means a lot more to him than we realised, he caught all of us off guard with his reaction.

That's a little extreme. I was on holiday / honeymoon this year for three weeks. That is as much as I can stand. Any longer and I think I would also go crazy.

They tend to go crazy when they're idle so props

She once spent 6 weeks at home when she first arrived in SA (Needed the correct paper work and couldn't work) she did actually go a bit crazy. Any longer and I would have had to start sleeping with one eye open.

 

[T0019238]

33 y/o doing BI development, around 950k p.a. After tax, medical & pension fund contribution I clear around 41k. I have no idea if I'm being over or under paid, and at this point I'm too afraid to ask

 

[surface]

33 y/o doing BI development, around 950k p.a. After tax, medical & pension fund contribution I clear around 41k. I have no idea if I'm being over or under paid, and at this point I'm too afraid to ask

nah. you are not even in top 20%ers in mybb. time to reexamine your salary.

 

[hellfire]

nah. you are not even in top 20%ers in mybb. time to reexamine your salary.