What's average? (was RE: [thelist] SALARY.COM: Is that right???)

[McCreath_David]

> So where are people supposed to find out what's average? Nobody here 
> wants to talk about it, and every time a salary survey comes up, 
> everyone says they're high.

Well, talking about salaries and talking about what you charge for building
a site are very different things, at least according to the "price fixing"
discussion that we had here a while back.

Some people's salaries are private, too. I worked for one company where only
your direct supervisor and payroll knew your salary. It was completely taboo
to discuss it. It sounds a little draconian, but it prevented many
unpleasant discussions; it just never came up. 

Since I'm now a public employee, mine is public knowledge: $44,477. I also
get 4 weeks vacation every year and a kickass benefits package. (That's why
the "Surfer-Web" pay surprised me so much.) I do design, architecture,
database stuff -- everything required of interactive websites (with some
weak spots and some strong spots).

I have a friend that works at a fairly well-recognized, but not large,
design/new media company in San Francisco that makes just under $80,000 and
he's a lead designer, and that's pretty much what he does. Design. He helps
design the architecture with a couple of other people then he goes into
Photoshop and creates jpgs of the pages, then hands them off to the coders.
('Course his cost of living is probably double mine, too, if not better. I
can afford to buy a nice house on my pay, and he's lucky to have a 2 bedroom
apartment.)

------------------------------------------
David McCreath   Web Developer
(907) 742-4647   Anchorage School District
                 http://www.asd.k12.ak.us/