Ask HN: Should a remote employee’s salary be tied to their physical location?

I don't think anyone knows the right answer.

Try it. Maybe they'll stick around. Maybe they'll stick around and be disgruntled. Maybe they'll leave and find another job that isn't trying to cut their pay

Just let it happen and see what the attractor becomes for this large, dynamical system.

It already is. If it’s legal to give you a pay cut cuz you’re not coming to the office anymore it’ll get done. If they can force it on you because you have no choice they will. Remember business don’t exist to be fair. They exist to make money. This is not evil.

I think the relationship of geography to salary is going to be dictated by the biggest factors in all pricing -- supply and demand. Cost of living adjustments are really just a proxy for acknowledging that a prospective remote worker in Des Moines will have fewer local opportunities (lower demand) than a similar worker in New York, and so will be in a less favorable negotiating position. If remote work continues to grow (thus making demand between geos more similar), the differences between locations will begin to diminish, of course.

I sometimes wonder if I worked for a company that was fixated on cost-of-living-based salaries, and I decided to move up to Aspen (high CoL, but low demand for software engineers) if I would get a commensurate increase in pay. I'm guessing probably not. ;)

During hiring, it makes lots of sense. A Kansas candidate could certainly accept a lower-paying job than an SF one. It makes less sense when you move while already employed, since the cost of re-hiring would greatly exceed the delta they might save. I guess it becomes a question then of are you willing to put your job on the line and demand the identical salary.

No. For us, an easy litmus test is "if one of our people had to move home to care for a sick parent, would we want to reduce their pay by $50k?"

Obviously not, and if you don't do it in that scenario, you don't do it in any scenario.

For reference, we're entirely distributed, no offices.