Coming from CT which is pretty expensive, programmer friends of mine who moved to SF have advised, “Don’t take a job for less than $90k in SF, as it will feel like subsistence”.
$52k/yr is in line with Eliezer’s salary if it’s only covering one person instead of two, and judging from thesecomments, Eliezer’s salary is reasonable.
SIAI seems to be paying the minimum amount that leaves each worker effective instead of scrambling to reduce expenses or find other sources of income. Presumably, SIAI has a maximum that it judges each worker to be worth, and Eliezer and Michael are both under their maximums. That leaves the question of where these salaries fall in that range.
I believe Michael and Eliezer are both being paid near their minimums because they know SIAI is financially constrained and very much want to see it succeed, and because their salaries seem consistent with at-cost living in the Bay Area.
I’m speculating on limited data, but the most likely explanation for the salary disparity is that Eliezer’s minimum is higher, possibly because Michael’s household has other sources of income. I don’t think marriage factors into the question.
From the fact that I can’t talk to Michael on the phone for more than 10 minutes without another call coming in, I infer that he works more than 40 hours/week.
Michael Vassar isn’t paying himself enough. $52K/yr is not much in either New York City or San Francisco. Or North Dakota, for that matter.
This seems basically like a sub-problem of “SIAI doesn’t have enough money”, unless you think there’s some other program that’s being over-funded.
Coming from CT which is pretty expensive, programmer friends of mine who moved to SF have advised, “Don’t take a job for less than $90k in SF, as it will feel like subsistence”.
$52k/yr is in line with Eliezer’s salary if it’s only covering one person instead of two, and judging from these comments, Eliezer’s salary is reasonable.
I’m confused by this in three ways. Unless I’m mistaken, in 2009
Eliezer was not married
Michael was married
Paying higher salaries to married than to single people is a questionable policy, and probably illegal
SIAI seems to be paying the minimum amount that leaves each worker effective instead of scrambling to reduce expenses or find other sources of income. Presumably, SIAI has a maximum that it judges each worker to be worth, and Eliezer and Michael are both under their maximums. That leaves the question of where these salaries fall in that range.
I believe Michael and Eliezer are both being paid near their minimums because they know SIAI is financially constrained and very much want to see it succeed, and because their salaries seem consistent with at-cost living in the Bay Area.
I’m speculating on limited data, but the most likely explanation for the salary disparity is that Eliezer’s minimum is higher, possibly because Michael’s household has other sources of income. I don’t think marriage factors into the question.
I thought I read it was part-time; though I don’t see that now.
He is full time. According to the filings he reports 40 hours of work for the SIAI. (Form 990 2009, Part VII, Section A—Page 7).
From the fact that I can’t talk to Michael on the phone for more than 10 minutes without another call coming in, I infer that he works more than 40 hours/week.
I seem to recall someone saying that both Michael Vassar and Eliezer Yudkowsky basically worked 60-hour weeks.
I assume that is 40 hours of work per week.
Yes. 40 per week.