If do contract work that's not even that much

Nah, that’s a normal paycheck for a medium level engineer in any American big city.

Nay, daily.

Yeah that’s a very big monthly pay

$161,122

Heck, I'd be pulling more than that if I were a self-employed consultant rather than under a consulting firm, in our small city in northern Scandinavia.

Now I'm raking in a little below that, and I'm taking out like a third of it as actual salary and saving the rest, to avoid high taxes, and to to pay for a leased car, pension saving, extra insurance etc, before taxes. But after all that I'm probably saving $3k every month tax free, and maybe $1,5k in my bank account.

Engineering life is pretty okay. Still can't afford a house yet though. Thanks boomers.

Key phrase is "big city". I'm a staff and there's a mid on my team that moved to Seattle. His cost of living adjustment when he moved allows him to make more than I do.

I think for a SF based company 200 - 250k salary is typical for even a senior engineer.

Monthly it's about what I'd expect for a low-medium experience engineer. But I'm an industrial engineer not software.

There's a reason the typical dev career pipeline ends at farmer. People get tired of all the bs and leave never to be seen again.

I mean, you definitely do. I know numerous people that dropped the field entirely (including me) even though the pay is ridiculous.

Lol they are not

That's on the high end, but not so high it's uncommon, for a salary paid biweekly to a senior engineer.

In the US...

Different in other parts of the world, even in Europe this is a high salary (but it reminds me to still ask for a raise...)