Why do web developers/programmers get paid so much?

[Lorenzo]

This question is inspired by this thread in the meta section.

Basically, it costs $1.5 million to hire 4 full-time programmers and a few additional outside contractors to code a forum script. The company in question charges a $100,000 monthly fee. This means that each coder is paid roughly $300,000-400,000.

Now I don't know much about web development/programming so I was surprised to see that the figure is so high but it turns out it's actually pretty standard in the industry and some websites pay even more than this. I'm sure it's not an easy job and writing a forum script from scratch is a complex task that requires good coding skills but I always assumed that they would get paid $50,000-150,000.

It also seems that someone who works in this industry could retire very early. After 10 years, they would have about $3 million so someone who enters the industry at age 25 could retire by 35 or even earlier. So do most web developers/programmers retire in their thirties?

[Sarthak]

This question is inspired by this thread in the meta section.

Basically, it costs $1.5 million to hire 4 full-time programmers and a few additional outside contractors to code a forum script. The company in question charges a $100,000 monthly fee. This means that each coder is paid roughly $300,000-400,000.

Now I don't know much about web development/programming so I was surprised to see that the figure is so high but it turns out it's actually pretty standard in the industry and some websites pay even more than this. I'm sure it's not an easy job and writing a forum script from scratch is a complex task that requires good coding skills but I always assumed that they would get paid $50,000-150,000.

It also seems that someone who works in this industry could retire very early. After 10 years, they would have about $3 million so someone who enters the industry at age 25 could retire by 35 or even earlier. So do most web developers/programmers retire in their thirties?

They Have to work much!  Maybe that's the reason!

[Vod]

Basically, it costs $1.5 million to hire 4 full-time programmers and a few additional outside contractors to code a forum script.

The basis of your logic is flawed.  It does not cost that much money to hire 4 programmers.  We'll never know why that much money was thrown at those guys, but I assume the purse holders didn't want to do due diligence or investigate other companies.

[Lorenzo]

This question is inspired by this thread in the meta section.

Basically, it costs $1.5 million to hire 4 full-time programmers and a few additional outside contractors to code a forum script. The company in question charges a $100,000 monthly fee. This means that each coder is paid roughly $300,000-400,000.

Now I don't know much about web development/programming so I was surprised to see that the figure is so high but it turns out it's actually pretty standard in the industry and some websites pay even more than this. I'm sure it's not an easy job and writing a forum script from scratch is a complex task that requires good coding skills but I always assumed that they would get paid $50,000-150,000.

It also seems that someone who works in this industry could retire very early. After 10 years, they would have about $3 million so someone who enters the industry at age 25 could retire by 35 or even earlier. So do most web developers/programmers retire in their thirties?

They Have to work much!  Maybe that's the reason!

True, but so do doctors, engineers, and scientists. And most of them get paid much less than $25,000 per month.

Basically, it costs $1.5 million to hire 4 full-time programmers and a few additional outside contractors to code a forum script.

The basis of your logic is flawed.  It does not cost that much money to hire 4 programmers.  We'll never know why that much money was thrown at those guys, but I assume the purse holders didn't want to do due diligence or investigate other companies.

According to that thread, the company was recommended by a Litecoin dev named Warren:

They were recommended by Warren, the developer of Litecoin iirc.

And it's been stated numerous times in that thread that the $1-1.5 million price is actually pretty typical for these types of jobs:

There are 4 full-time programmers working on it, plus some additional outside contractors. You might be surprised by the cost if you've never looked into this sort of thing before, but it's actually pretty standard for a group of this size...

...Huge corporations pay way more for this sort of thing. This isn't just any website. It's a very large and complicated computer program.

I worked for a small company and it took a long time to convince my superiors (inc. owner) how much web development costs. They eventually apologized after when they went around me only to find exactly the same figures. $1.5m+ is totally reasonable for a large development like I assume this new site would be.

A million dollars (or even two million dollars) is really not a lot of money to be spending to build a piece of software that is used for a half million people, many of which conduct a lot of business on

[MaliceRed]

Well, I work with a lot of web admins and coders.

The general consensus is that you're being paid to create a platform for said client. The knowledge and experience required for such a top end project is pretty extensive. These sorts of projects take months of non-stop development, and even after the project is 'completed' there is still maintenance (Keeping the site functional and bug free). Let's also not forget about Security, as this is pretty much a something else that needs to be factored in.

You pay someone to create a site. But you also have to pay to get it secured professionally, so it's safe from hackers and exploits. These two are not in the same.

Think about it for a bit, it would be pretty expensive to hire a group of carpenters and contruction engineers to make a fairly fancy and big building, or house right? The argument here is value comparisons between digital goods and physical goods.

What makes a forum more expensive than a house?

There are alot of factors to account for.

Do I think that 1m+ to develop is alot and unfair?

Not at all. But that better be one badass forum.

[Lethn]

Click the big X on the top right of the screen and turn off your computer if you feel programmers are underpaid, because without them you wouldn't have been able to post your rant here. Programmmers and developers are largely responsible for building up our entire infrastructure and communications network, without them we'd still be sending things by paper and computer systems would be horribly inefficient.

I can tell you don't know much about programming/development

Also, as long as somebody earns their money honestly, I don't see why it's anyones fucking business what they do with it, I wish people would stop trying to spy on others because the only conclusion I can come up with for that is they're jealous of the money being made.

[Lorenzo]

Well, I work with a lot of web admins and coders.

The general consensus is that you're being paid to create a platform for said client. The knowledge and experience required for such a top end project is pretty extensive. These sorts of projects take months of non-stop development, and even after the project is 'completed' there is still maintenance (Keeping the site functional and bug free). Let's also not forget about Security, as this is pretty much a something else that needs to be factored in.

You pay someone to create a site. But you also have to pay to get it secured professionally, so it's safe from hackers and exploits. These two are not in the same.

Think about it for a bit, it would be pretty expensive to hire a group of carpenters and contruction engineers to make a fairly fancy and big building, or house right? The argument here is value comparisons between digital goods and physical goods.

What makes a forum more expensive than a house?

There are alot of factors to account for.

Do I think that 1m+ to develop is alot and unfair?

Not at all. But that better be one badass forum.

Nice explanation. It does put it into perspective somewhat.

Click the big X on the top right of the screen and turn off your computer if you feel programmers are underpaid, because without them you wouldn't have been able to post your rant here. Programmmers and developers are largely responsible for building up our entire infrastructure and communications network, without them we'd still be sending things by paper and computer systems would be horribly inefficient.

I can tell you don't know much about programming/development

Also, as long as somebody earns their money honestly, I don't see why it's anyones fucking business what they do with it, I wish people would stop trying to spy on others because the only conclusion I can come up with for that is they're jealous of the money being made.

I admit I'm a little bit jealous.

That company is just lucky, nothing more. They bump into a child that throws donated money. They are lucky.

I guess owner of "slickage" is paying his employees 3-4k$/month, rest of it belongs him.

Not sure if the CEO is also the owner but he seems to be one of the developers so while I wouldn't be surprised if he gets the lion's share of the money, that $3-4K/month figure sounds a bit too low.

[countryfree]

I regularly hire programmers for short pieces of work, and I don't pay them anywhere close to the sums mentioned here.
There are certainly a few lucky programmers, but the ones I'm working with aren't paid more than a mechanic at an official dealership.

[hgerson]

What the ...?!?

Web developers/programmers are all well paid now?

Go to odesk or freelancer and see how much are they doing.

[Ayle56]

A company gets paid a fortune to get a job done, but its staff only get a crap wage for doing it. The people who own the company make a fortune, not the staff. It's the same for most professions, for example hiring a nurse/carer might cost you a fortune per hour, but the actual nurse/carer only gets a crap wage, the company he/she works for makes a fortune.

[|Bitcoin|]

Well, not every programmer earn that much. Take a look at MyBB forums software. It is a working open source software. How much do you think they get from donation a month?