Here's a look at my salary breakdown for the past ten years, annualized in USD. I’m a product designer in tech with a non-FAANG résumé, going from a medium cost-of-living area to a high-cost-of-living area, and at the center of the matrix of domination.

2010—2013: Unpaid internships

I did a few of these back when this was a popular option. They were three months or so at a time while I was pursuing my B.A. in Visual Communication. I was privileged to have connections to get these internships, and the gigs helped with gaining more connections in the industry. I was also privileged to be able to dedicate time here without being paid.

Year 1: $12/hr—My first paying job in design

I interned for a year and brought in around $20k that year.

Year 2: $37,000—My first full-time position

I joined the same company I was interning for as a full-time employee. This was an 85% increase in salary. They offered $35k and I asked for $40k. They landed in the middle and I happily took it.

Year 3: $43,000—My first raise

For my first performance review, my boss took me to a cafe and said she could increase my salary to $40k. I asked if it could be bumped to $45k, and we landed at $43k, which was a 16.22% raise.

Year 4: $57,200—My first acquisition

Breakdown: $52,200 base, $5,200 bonus.
A 33.02% increase. When our company got acquired, I was offered a new contract with a shiny real-life bonus. No negotiation was allowed here— anyone who didn’t sign the new contracts was let go.

Year 4: $61,600—Raise

Breakdown: $56,000 base, $5,600 bonus.
A 7.69% increase. I wasn’t happy about this one. I didn’t feel appreciated for the amount of work I was putting in, which was over 40 hours a week. I interviewed outside the company around this time but nothing panned out.

Year 5: $77,000—Correction raise

Breakdown: $70,000 base, $7,000 bonus.
A 25% increase. I joined a new team and was told that my old salary was so low, that my new boss got an alert that I was at risk of leaving the company. She corrected this for me and I still think about how much she changed my life in one day. I felt appreciated by the company again.

Year 5: $99,000—Promotion (mid-level)

Breakdown: $90,000 base, $9,000 bonus.
A 28.57% increase. Same boss! I was still getting big percentage bumps in salary because even with the correction, I was at the lowest point of the salary band. When I jumped bands, she had to get me to at least the lowest part of the next level.

Year 6: $102,300—Raise

Breakdown: $93,000 base, $9,300 bonus.
A 3.33% increase. New boss, new team, crossed into 6 figures.

Year 7: $113,000—Promotion (Senior)

Breakdown: $103,000 base, $10,300 bonus.
A 10.75% increase. I proved myself on the new team and jumped up a role.

Year 8: $117,700—Raise

Breakdown: $107,000 base, $10,700 bonus.
A 3.88% increase. New boss, same team. I had a feeling I could get more money elsewhere for my experience level and interviewed at a few dozen companies. I was also ready to relocate.

Moving to a high-cost-of-living area.

The next set of numbers was not something I imagined when getting a B.A., so I hope this helps put the field in perspective.

Year 8 (2020): $225,310—Job change

Breakdown: $162,200 base, $8,110 bonus, $20,000 signing bonus, $220,000 RSUs (stock over 4 years).
A 91.43% increase. I realized a little late in the game how important it is to receive stock in a company. Public stock typically comes in the form of restricted stock units (RSUs) which are usually paid out over 4 years. Many companies make you wait a year before you can start cashing out some (like 25% a year) of the RSUs, while other companies let you “vest” that stock right away.

I received another offer ($170,000 base, $25,500 bonus) which was all cash, but it didn’t come close to this offer because they didn’t offer stock. My last employer, which was a bigger public company, also tried to retain me with an offer ($125,000 base, $25,000 bonus, still no stock) that didn’t come close.

As a designer, if you find yourself working at a publicly traded company and do not receive stock as a form of payment, please interview elsewhere.

I negotiated for a few weeks which got my base up to the top of the band, the signing bonus ($5k), relocation bonus ($15k), and the stock package from $180k/4yrs to the final $220k/4yrs.

Year 9 (2021): $414,000—Promotion

Breakdown: $170,310 base, $17,031 bonus, $65,000/4yrs RSU refresher.
A 5% increase in base and a 5% increase in bonus percentage, which contributed to an overall 83.75% increase in total compensation due to stock appreciation. This makes year 9 a little complicated. But my W2 states I received $414,000 in total compensation and paid over 6 figures in taxes. This bump came from a few factors. Besides the promotion, I vested my entire first year of stocks and started vesting stocks on a quarterly basis. Our stock price had more than tripled, so my original RSU package of $220k had turned into almost $800k. I had cashed out everything I could at that time.

Year 10 (2022): ~$230,000—Correction Raise

Breakdown: $183,232 base, $18,323 bonus, $85,000/4yrs RSU refresher.
New boss, new team. Year 10 so far has been the biggest loss I’ve seen, even with a 7% increase in cash compensation. I lost $200k in one day because the stock price came crashing back to earth. Then another $400k over the next few months. About 70% of my stock was still restricted and we can only sell during open trading windows, so we all watched it disappear. The company did a hefty correction raise for everyone since there was a lot of loss this year and a lot of people leaving the company.

RSUs are easy come easy go.

Year 10 (2022): $314,488—Promotion

Breakdown: $200,500 base, $30,075 bonus, $200,000/4yrs RSU refresher.
A 23% increase in just cash, but an overall 24.88% decrease from year 9 in total compensation. New boss, same team. I was considering leaving the company before this promotion to cover some losses, but it felt like an external offer, especially with the $50k per year in stock added.

I’m hoping to live off the cash income and sit on the stock for a few years before selling anything since I was able to get in at a low price.

Overview

About me

These are my records of gaining a raise or promotion every year, and sometimes twice a year. Although we cannot know how much of my progression came from my centered place within the matrix of domination, I have tips to get raises that I’ll share in another article. Follow me for more topics from behind the gate. And read my first article on How much money Senior Product Designers make.