Game Developer Salaries From H1-B Data

http://realtimecollisiondetection.net/blog/?p=70

by JabavuAdams • 18 years ago

21 21 18 years ago

These look high, from my perspective in Toronto, Canada. That said, I've only worked at smaller studios. The two large studios near Toronto, Rockstar, and Koei are famously secretive.

My experience in Toronto has been that at most companies you take a salary hit versus non-game-programming, because of the sexiness of the field, and the small industry here.

jrbedard2• 18 years ago

From my experience, these salaries are also 15-25% higher than what you get in most Montreal game studios for entry level engineer positions.

jrbedard2• 18 years ago

It's quite surprising that they are making that salary table public. I can name 2 people that I know on HB-1 from that table just by looking up the company name and job title.

zach2• 18 years ago

No doubt, I can as well; quite unexpected that this is public in such a format.

Presumably there is also a country of origin in this data -- that would also be interesting to tabulate averages from.

jrockway• 18 years ago

Wouldn't H1-B salaries be lower than non-H1-B salaries? I thought companies liked H1-Bs since the employees don't ask for as much money. (Plus, they have the "if you dont like this job, you go back to your home country" leverage, which probably makes the H1-Bs not ask for more money.)

mariorz2• 18 years ago

I would think companies like H1-Bs because it allows a bigger talent pool to choose from, not because they can exploit foreign workers more easily.

artaak• 18 years ago

Talent and leverage goes side by side in H1-Bs. The same applies sometimes to the foreign students pursuing PhD in US. If the advisor does not like something he does not mind to use the leverage"if you do not like it - go back to your country".

sachinag• 18 years ago

Well, this is actually an indication that the law is working as intended for this industry - the employer can't find a permanent resident for this technical position at market rates, so is sponsoring someone from overseas to meet that need.

helveticaman2• 18 years ago

I've read the H1-B discount is 20% off the regular salary.

mariorz2• 18 years ago

linkage?

kirubakaran3• 18 years ago

H1Bs can switch jobs any time.

gruseom2• 18 years ago

"H-1B work-authorization is strictly limited to employment by the sponsoring employer."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H1B_visa

ashu• 18 years ago

The law actually requires that H-1B salaries be above a certain level. Many companies (mostly, shady "consultants") routinely violate the law causing the impression that H-1Bs are cheap.

ig1• 18 years ago

No, these figures are figures supplied to the government on the H1-B visa supposedly saying "we're paying more then market rate and can't find anyone able to the job in this country".

In practice some companies do pay below the market rate by comparing the rate to that offered to a lower skill level - for example for a "senior" job hire a foreign senior developer as a "junior" thus be able to compare their salary to the average salary for a junior and underpay them.

Also the majority of market rate comparisions are done using the Bureau of Labor Statistics "Occupational Employment Survey" which people have argued undervalues certain jobs due to jobs with different requirements being lumped into a single category.

anamax• 18 years ago

All of the games would go away if the govt auctioned H1-B visas. Then the only question is whether they'd be owned/rented by companies or by individuals.

As to choosing the number to be auctioned, we could either pick a number or stop issuing visas as soon as "enough" money has been raised. (Yes, you'd set things up so the first visa didn't cost a lot more than the last one.)

Game Developer Salaries From H1-B Data

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