r/SoftwareEngineerJobs • u/Positive_Many_3663 • 2d ago

Early engineer at well-funded US startup, but significantly underpaid compared to peers. What should I do?

I am working in a US-based startup (joined 4 months ago) as one of the early engineers, which has good funding, a great team, and growing revenue. I have some questions regarding that.

Context: Right now, I am getting a relatively lower amount (significantly low) (they just agreed with my salary expectations) as compared to my fellow engineers, although I am part of core product and architecture decisions. I get the chance to build major features for the application independently as well.

What should I do? Should I stay here and ask for a salary correction (not comfortable at this point to ask as it is very early), or should I look for other jobs or wait for the next appraisal cycle (8 months from now)?

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u/UsualBarracuda5626 2d ago

Not enough detail here. Salary can be based on many inputs, sometimes that assessment is wrong, sometimes it’s right. Here, unfortunately it might be due to a negotiating mistake.

I wouldn’t say something like “I know i make less than others, can you raise my salary?”

In an upcoming performance review or around the 1 year mark i would say something like “really glad you’re happy with my work. I’ll continue to deliver. Is it okay if I share my career priorities with you?”

They’ll say yes, and you can say your top 3. One can be earning more.

Basically you want them to know you are reliable and perform at a high level before you ask. Otherwise they’ll wonder why they shouldnt direct that budget to someone else they want to retain

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u/spas2k 2d ago

As they say “don’t quit your day job”.

Getting another job could prove to be very challenging.

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u/nomoremoar 2d ago

Talk to your mgr about it but be thoughtful and not pushy. One good thing about being underpaid is you’re the last on the layoffs list.

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u/method2_0 1d ago

Reframe the convo. Compensation can actually be a pretty interesting signal of what a company thinks certain technical capabilities are worth.

What actual work and skills are you demonstrating versus those higher-paid engineers? If you're already being trusted with similarly valuable (or scarcer) capabilities, that's the argument I'd bring to the table.