On 11/24/09 18:28, Warp wrote:
> Darren New<dne### [at] sanrrcom>  wrote:
>> Page 19 shows 38.5 people, which comes out to an average of $78K/year, which
>> still isn't what I'd call a lot of money in San Francisco for tech,
>> fundraising, or finance&admin work.
>
>    Salaries are filthy high in the US, especially taking into account that
> taxes and expenses in general are considerably lower than here.

	They may be high, but they're not filthy.<G>

	If there's a fundamental problem with high salaries, then blame the 
economic system, not the companies or Wikimedia.

>    AFAIK the average MSc in Finland earns much less than that, has to pay
> a lot more in taxes and living expenses are much higher.
>
>    I'm probably biased because of living here, but $78K/year is what I call
> "filthy rich".

	Well, I recall a comparison of what senior people in a category of 
IT/programming make in different countries (I forgot exactly what 
category, but it wasn't some obscure one). Finland was well above the 
US, and either it or Norway were top among industrialized countries.

	And you have to take cost of living into account. $78000/yr is really 
good in many cities in the US, but as Darren pointed out, it's not 
particularly high in SF, where the cost of living is very high. It 
wouldn't surprise me if any particularly good programmer with an MS 
degree would refuse to work for that salary over there.

	How much do you pay in rent?

	And I never understood the system too well, but perhaps that 78000 is 
supposed to cover additional expenses not counted as the salary (health 
insurance benefits, retirement benefits, etc). So the actual "salary" 
that the employee receives may be less. In a company that provide 
employees with health insurance, if everyone's salary is officially 
$70,000, the company is paying quite a bit more than 70,000 times the 
number of people, and their books will perhaps indicate it as such.

	Some of your concerns may be valid, but I'm not sure I see the need for 
excessive griping. As long as they're providing the relevant 
information, you can do the analysis (as you're doing), and simply 
choose not to donate. There's nothing morally wrong with them taking 
first class plane flights on donated money, as long as they don't 
mislead anyone about it...

-- 
DOS means never having to live hand-to-mouse

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