Compensation and the SE

If you were sitting down with a good friend, having a beer together, and he asked you what you make as an SE, you might have to explain first that your pay is rather complicated. Yes, you can typically give a range, but the fact of the matter is that an SE really doesn’t know exactly what he is going to make until the end-of-year calculations are completed. Your friend, on the other hand, who might have a more traditional salaried or hourly job, may not understand this, as their compensation is a more simple calculation. If they make $75,000 a year working as an office manager, they can easily divide that number by the number of paychecks in a calendar year, and the numbers should match. Someone who lives in this type of world will probably need a few additional beers if you begin to explain how your pay works. As you will see in the details of this chapter… it is honestly rather complicated! We will dive into each area and explore at length to...