\u003C/a>\n\nThere are descriptions that explain what each of these categories are, and they are available for all employees to review at any time.\n\nOnce a developer is assessed on a BMA, their letter grades get converted into a numeric score by using a formula that is also published internally for all developers to review. This formula outputs a numeric score between 0.00 and 5.99 (with 5.99 being the best grade), which is then rounded down to the nearest whole number. In short, a developer can receive a score of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.\n\nNext we assess the years of programming experience. This is a value that falls in a range from 0 to 25. Naturally, this goes up by 1 at every annual review.\n\nThe score and years of experience are then looked up on a chart that has years of experience on the X axis and score on the Y axis, and details salary amounts at each cell. It's worth redundantly noting that this chart is published internally also and can be reviewed by all developers at any time. Unsurprisingly, the cell that your score and experience points to is exactly what you get paid.\n\n\u003Ch2>Make Compensation Transparent\u003C/h2>\n\nThere are no secrets or magic in our compensation system. All aspects of it are published internally for all developers to review at any time. They also get input into the changes to the BMA skills each year, well in advance of their annual review. They know the formula that we use to calculate salary. Most importantly, \u003Cstrong>their compensation doesn't depend on the performance of anyone else\u003C/strong>. Everybody can be a 5 in our system and everybody can be a 0.\n\nAbove all else, our system is fair and evaluates individual performance, not team performance. If you want happy developers and low turnover, I highly encourage you to try adopting such a system yourself. If your company is unwilling to do so, perhaps evaluate why. Are there secrets and magic in the compensation system that you don't want your employees to know about? Why do you value these hidden metrics? Do your employees feel valued?\n\nA happy developer is a productive developer, and while a fair system does not allow you to easily control salary costs in terms of budget (because everybody can be a 5), it does help increase job satisfaction, lower turnover, and maintain a relationship of trust with managers. And as \u003Ca href=\"http://www.haneycodes.net/developer-turned-manager\">I've written about before\u003C/a>, if you don't have the trust of your employees, you will fail.\n\n\u003Cstrong>EDIT (7/27/2016):\u003C/strong> We have published a salary calculator based on our internally transparent compensation numbers! \u003Ca href=\"http://stackoverflow.com/company/salary\">Take a look\u003C/a>.\n\nPS - hate stack ranking but love Stack Overflow? \u003Ca href=\"http://www.stackoverflow.com/company/work-here\">Come and work with us!\u003C/a> Or discover our listings for developers using \u003Ca href=\"https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/developer-jobs-using-c%23?utm_source=so-owned&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=dev-c4al&utm_content=c4al-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">C#\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/developer-jobs-using-wordpress?utm_source=so-owned&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=dev-c4al&utm_content=c4al-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WordPress\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/developer-jobs-using-amazon-web-services?utm_source=so-owned&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=dev-c4al&utm_content=c4al-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AWS\u003C/a> and more at Stack Overflow Jobs.\n\n\u003Cem>Follow David Haney on Twitter at \u003Ca href=\"http://www.twitter.com/@haneycodes\">@haneycodes\u003C/a>\u003C/em>","html","2016-03-07T12:00:00.000Z",{"current":539},"developer-compensation-stack-overflow-doesnt-stack-rank",[541],{"_createdAt":542,"_id":543,"_rev":544,"_type":545,"_updatedAt":542,"slug":546,"title":548},"2023-05-23T16:43:21Z","wp-tagcat-engineering","9HpbCsT2tq0xwozQfkc4ih","blogTag",{"current":547},"engineering","Engineering","Developer Compensation: Stack Overflow Doesn't Stack Rank",[551,557,562,567],{"_id":552,"publishedAt":553,"slug":554,"sponsored":12,"title":556},"1d082483-6dc6-424b-8b09-9c84b54779da","2025-09-02T17:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":555},"back-to-school-developers-at-stack-overflow-have-some-advice-for-you","Back to school? Developers at Stack Overflow have some advice for you",{"_id":558,"publishedAt":553,"slug":559,"sponsored":12,"title":561},"5cd91820-9515-4be5-87ae-e919fd443c18",{"_type":10,"current":560},"getting-started-on-stack-overflow-a-step-by-step-guide-for-students","Getting started on Stack Overflow: a step-by-step guide for students",{"_id":563,"publishedAt":553,"slug":564,"sponsored":12,"title":566},"614538a9-c352-4024-adf1-fa44a9f911b6",{"_type":10,"current":565},"stack-overflow-is-helping-you-learn-to-code-with-new-resources","Stack Overflow is helping you learn to code with new resources",{"_id":568,"publishedAt":553,"slug":569,"sponsored":12,"title":571},"763b1d36-83d8-4178-9c2d-32d705ea1d7b",{"_type":10,"current":570},"introducing-your-newest-study-buddy-stackoverflow-ai","Introducing your newest study buddy: stackoverflow.ai",{"count":573,"lastTimestamp":12},0,["Reactive",575],{"$sarticleModal":576},false,["Set"],["ShallowReactive",579],{"sanity-0R79I54gKuI8rx3oYGsuEJmuoAiiG3wW2h4jMg0_FSA":-1,"sanity-comment-wp-post-5234-1757244298717":-1},"/2016/03/07/developer-compensation-stack-overflow-doesnt-stack-rank"]