It's not really much though... Software engineers make that in an hour or two, that's reasonable price for 3 years of updates of the primary tool... And it's a business expense. And as the sibling comment says, a game costs about the same.
To be fair in most of the developed world it is more like 4-6 and there is always Emacs, Vim, Atom, Code for free. An embarrassment of riches for nothing.
Okay then, five or eight hours, or a week.. for 3 years of updates - still peanuts considering that this is programmer's primary tool and business expense deductible from tax base.
It depende on the country. In my country (Brazil, where minimum wage is less than US$ 1/hour) a software developer earns about 1/4 or 1/5 (or less) compared to US salaries for a similar job.
Spotify, Netflix and YouTube Premium here are much cheaper than in US.
I mean contractors - my bad, I should've been more clear... I'm used to everyone being a contractor. Employees should get license from employers. Is contracting rate also that low in Brazil?
