What salary should I be making as a product designer at a startup?

Post date: 2018-08-16 00:44:22

What should my salary be as a Product Designer at a startup with x] years of experience living in x] city?

Here are the details:

• I'm 40 yrs old
• Since 2000 I've designed and built websites and apps
• I've been a senior designer and run a freelance business, but never a startup
• I've been recognized on the web and design communities with a modest following
• In 2017, I joined a startup as sole Product Designer

The startup is in New York city and I'm currently making $130,000.

The reason I'm asking about my salary, is that in the past 1.5years at the startup, I have gone far above and beyond any typical duties as a designer. I'm the only employee included at higher level strategy meetings, partially (possibly) because I'm older than anyone else by about 10 years and they listen to my feedback. I contribute javascript and CSS to our React codebase. Much of the marketing copy and messaging was crafted by me. I designed the entire experience for web and mobile. Half of the big groundbreaking features we're building the next year were created and explored by me.

However—I also have about 20,000 private options in the company. Though I have never regarded this too seriously since for so many startups that equity never amounts to anything.

But given my age and the cost of living in New York and the sheer energy and skillset I'm pouring into this product... I think I'd like to make more money. But I honestly don't know if I'm asking too much. And I'm not privy to what other designers working at this level are making.

Thanks for any advice you have.

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