I worked at a remote first company once, where EVERY developer in the team earned 150k USD. We had one person from Nigeria, a bunch from Austin and a few all over Europe!
what was the salary for the person from Nigeria?
Ask HN: What a universal remote job salary should be?
11–20 of 48 posts
Re: Ask HN: What a universal remote job salary should be?
#12I worked at a remote first company once, where EVERY developer in the team earned 150k USD. We had one person from Nigeria, a bunch from Austin and a few all over Europe!
This is great, but extremely rare
Re: Ask HN: What a universal remote job salary should be?
#13Interesting and what if i work remotely from a poor country? would i be subject to the same salary as them?
You can always apply for those remote jobs and ask for the same salary.
As someone who has always been on fully remote teams, I've found that ease of communication and time zones are a big deal.
If someone is harder to communicate with (English is a second language) or doesn't overlap with the rest of the team's work day and costs the same as a dev in the US, I may end up going with the dev in the US.
People who says pay should be about value provided are ignoring several things, including: 1) I have no idea how valuable someone is before I hire them, and 2) it's much easier to trust employees who are in the same legal jurisdiction as me (which has a value).
For example, I have two devs in South Asia who cost half of a US dev each, but they're also not very independent and they have very limited skills. They make a lot of money for their country and the price for the value is exactly right for me.
Re: Ask HN: What a universal remote job salary should be?
#14Re: Ask HN: What a universal remote job salary should be?
#15Living in a poor country shouldn't be a reason to get a low rate. But this is really common, mostly because companies look for people in third-world countries to get the same level of employees waaay cheaper. I'm from Uruguay and have had interviewers thinking they're doing me a favor for extending me an offer in USD, even if it's ridiculously low for my experience. In the end it depends on how the potential employee negotiates their salary
Re: Ask HN: What a universal remote job salary should be?
#16A thing I never understood is, what happens if, let's say, I stay in a HCOL area until I am doing interviews (eg Switzerland) and then when hired I move back instantly to a LCOL area (eg Albania): what happens now to my salary? Do I get a cut just because I decided to move? And what if I am a digital nomad and know I want to change nation in which I stay every x months?
Agreed, globalized salaries should also consider people moving around and shouldn't depend on current location (unless of course money is not enough to live in the current location). I had an interview the other day with a local company that offered very sweet remote packages and a not-that-sweet on-site one. I said I would leave the country when I got the job and work in a digital nomad way, and they said that because of my current location I would only be offered the local package. Weird situations like this make me think we're not quite there regarding fair remote work yet
Re: Ask HN: What a universal remote job salary should be?
#17It should be dependent solely on the negotiations skills of a candidate
Re: Ask HN: What a universal remote job salary should be?
#18Interesting and what if i work remotely from a poor country? would i be subject to the same salary as them?
You can always apply for those remote jobs and ask for the same salary. As someone who has always been on fully remote teams, I've found that ease of communication and time zones are a big deal. If someone is harder to communicate with (English is a second language) or doesn't overlap with the rest of the team's work day and costs the same as a dev in the US, I may end up going with the dev in the US. People who says…
If you aren't able to estimate how much value somebody would bring to the team before hiring them, you maybe should oil your hiring process a bit. Also assuming you can trust somebody more or less depending on their legal jurisdiction says a lot about your company's culture
Re: Ask HN: What a universal remote job salary should be?
#19It should be dependent solely on the negotiations skills of a candidate
most devs will take whats given or just ask for lowest possible
alot of people in the dev community never negotiate on a thing
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26932978
this thread highlight it well
Re: Ask HN: What a universal remote job salary should be?
#20A thing I never understood is, what happens if, let's say, I stay in a HCOL area until I am doing interviews (eg Switzerland) and then when hired I move back instantly to a LCOL area (eg Albania): what happens now to my salary? Do I get a cut just because I decided to move? And what if I am a digital nomad and know I want to change nation in which I stay every x months?
Even if, why not just legally live of your uncle who has an apartment in San Francisco, while you defacto live in South Alabama. With remote jobs I don't understand why someone living in a cheaper City should get less.
It's not a matter of should. It's just that, on average, someone in a cheaper city will accept less than someone in an expensive city because what is too little to cover rent in some places allows you to live like a king elsewhere.
It's just supply and demand. Give 50k in a poor country, and (assuming there are enough qualified people), you will have quite a lot of choice. Give 50k in SF and people will be laughing at you. Why give 200k in the first instance when there's enough supply with 50k?