Ask HN: Are Programming Salaries Inaccurate?

We've all seen the big salaries job sites seem to tout around, but just how accurate are they? I've been talking with people who are full-time developers who barely made 20k a year at their job. In specific, I know a guy who works on huge projects with React and Redux etc who makes 15k a year. On the contrary, sites claim just knowing html, css, and some jquery can land you a job with $60k in the States. The guy I know is in Russia if that changes anything. Perhaps commenters could post what they do and how much they make? I believe we're being largely misrepresented in terms of pay.