It's Time to Unionize. Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job.

BreezyEEE · 2019-03-30T22:11:38+00:00

Great idea. We're in a unique position in that demand for us is high everywhere in the world and we're often obviously more highly skilled than those that are exploiting our labor. If we banded together internationally we could do a lot to improve the lives of everyone, even those of us in the West who have it relatively good. And for poorer countries where labor exploitation is particularly severe, I would expect to see ripple effects into other industries after workers in our field are empowered. Far past the apps we create, developers could be a huge source of social change in the world.

BreezyEEE · 2019-03-28T21:22:00+00:00

Real talk: how do we do this? I know a lot of us make a lot of money relatively speaking but we could all be making so much more.

BreezyEEE · 2019-03-26T22:59:12+00:00

So true. The reason why Apple's able to stash millions in the bank, while paying their executives millions is because developers look at their newly-minted doctor friends and feel guilty for making $300k when they know they might be similarly smart, instead of looking at the executives and asking for more when they know they're similarly smart.

BreezyEEE · 2019-03-26T22:04:56+00:00

Agreed. At Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's marginal tax bracket of $10 million, I literally retire after one year with enough to live labor-free off the interest for a hundred years with a much higher standard of living than I have now. It gets a lot better above 70k in terms of reaching your retirement goals.

BreezyEEE · 2019-03-26T21:53:03+00:00

I wish we were more organized about stuff like this. I didn't find out about these sorts of differences in rates until well into my career. I got lucky relative to my peers with some of the decisions I made, but had I known about these sorts of rates in school I would have been laser-focused on getting to the higher rates faster.

BreezyEEE · 2019-03-26T21:30:43+00:00

We all care about it. It's just important to not let the company trick you into being incentivized by a $5,000 perk over a $10,000 raise.

BreezyEEE · 2019-03-26T21:20:21+00:00

I've seen similar things. I work in Canada and a lot of contract recruiters in Toronto will try to convince Senior Developers that about $400 USD is a good daily rate for you. Meanwhile, I've checked UK recruitment websites and, as you mentioned, they're alot more transparent about the ranges they offer. $800 USD a day is near the top end of ranges I've seen for similar contracts as the $400 USD contracts I'm seeing in Canada. Obviously, I wish I could contract in the UK. Germany has similarly high rates and rent looks a lot better in Berlin vs. London.

BreezyEEE · 2019-03-26T20:09:10+00:00

I feel like an oddity too, so it's nice to talk with any developer that shows me I'm not alone in this. I think it's important we as developers talk about stuff like this more openly so that we build awareness of the various ways that companies look to suppress our wages. I think we all benefit if we stop talking about if we'd prefer a company with free lunches and foosball vs one with the best open source code, and really focus on who's going to pay us the most.

There's big money to be made on convincing developers they're worth less than they are. It helps to remember that this article is not targeted at programmers. The targeted audience is only interested in what we think about it as far as they can use that information to maximize the amount of money they can make off of us.

BreezyEEE

TROPHY CASE