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Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?

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221–230 of 385 posts

Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?

#221
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your other post said you were demoralized and “quiet quitting”, or collecting a paycheck and fucking around. That may work for a while, but long term you will be unfulfilled and miserable. It’s time for a change

Definitely a time for change, but that doesn't invalidate my argument about equal pay

You’re downvoted but you’re right to point out that you’re considering your own best next steps but not letting your individual circumstance dictate what you advocate

Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?

#222
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the company would be foolish to let me leave" Fundamentally, if they can find a replacement at a lower cost, they will. Businesses are about the bottom line. No matter what their size is. Fighting that truism will only lead you to frustration.

> if they can find a replacement at a lower cost, they will If that was easy for them, they wouldn't have SF-based employees in that role.

This is not about the SF-based employees, this is about the roles the company has chosen to source in lower-cost regions. For whatever reason, they've decided that they are getting a lot of value out of local resources in SF, and some of that will be about being American, some of it about responsibility, some of it about liability and local laws that they can hold the employee to. When it comes to those roles they've based overseas, they've done for the sole reason of cheaper labor. If you stop being that cheap labor, they'll just hire someone else who is. If there is no cheap labor, then they'll hire a local in SF instead. It's really that simple, and I agree it's not fair - life isn't fair.

Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?

#223
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem with these arguments is that there is supposedly a permanent class of “owners” and one of “workers”, and the workers are completely without agency nor ability to become owners themselves. Especially in software, a good idea can be converted into a business with minimal friction no matter where you live. America has helped created more Latino millionaires than any other business through McDonald’s franchisi…

> My problem with these arguments is that there is supposedly a permanent class of “owners” and one of “workers”, and the workers are completely without agency nor ability to become owners themselves. That's because there is. Whatever workers become owners is usually through a lucky windfall, e.g. finding a niche, being a market first-comer, marrying to a person who is an "owner", etc. It doesn't scale, so any tales…

Marx himself participated in the stock market

Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't make any sense. Your pay should be based on the value you provide to the company you work for.. Not based on whether it is fair to your neighbor or not.

Even from a lefty perspective: people vary wildly in the value they produce. A society that paid based on output would be as if not more unequal than today's. Plus it does nothing for the people who need money to live but can't or don't do economic production: children, elderly, disabled, caregivers, etc. Socialists will sometimes emphasize the share of productivity captured by capital to argue for redistribution to…

This. For all the talk that says software benefits the world, software developers do forget what's the perspective from the other side.

Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not a crazy conspiracy, I know it's pretty clear why it's being done. And I know I can't do anything about it other than look for new opportunities. But should location based pay be just accepted because that's the norm? There are variables that can't be used to do discriminate like age, gender, race, sexual orientation etc. We've accepted equal pay for equal work in these cases. Is it that far fetched that even…

I agree with you it's horseshit. What you're saying sincerely makes total sense to me. Has to feel terrible. I would feel detached from my work as well, I think. You're experiencing alienation from the fruits of your labor. Your labor being exploited to maximize profit. Unfortunately, the comments here are right. It "makes sense" in the sense these experiences are characteristic of life within capitalism as a laborer…

> If you want solutions, your recourse is either collective action/unionization or finding a new job.

You really think they won’t just stop hiring people from that country if they “took action”? Or if they could get another job at a higher rate they wouldn’t?

My take on the subject is they are providing the OP with an opportunity which they otherwise wouldn’t have due to the current job market in their country in exchange for a rate of pay that is relative to said job market.

Maybe it sucks, maybe it’s unfair (it isn’t) but it is preferable to the alternative which is to not have a good paying job.

Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?

#226
post #25

There's no real winning these on a point by point basis because the entire system of wage labor is set up to separate you from the value you create for owners as much as the market will bear. Employers agree with this openly every time they talk about how this is a market, though they avoid the charged language and obfuscate it by drawing focus to other ideas. These kind of logical points from employers are not rules…

> The best way for workers to beat these pay systems is to apply organized pressure collectively Telling HN could be a first step for that.

ya it’s a place to practice maybe but limited impact to discourse chatter esp in such a hostile forum for it. what are your second/third steps

Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?

#227

Kind of depends what you are getting paid, but if it is less then $100k say, you can easily find remote jobs that pay more, play them off against each other. The companies are using sharp business practice to get you as cheap as possible, you can do the same to get as much as possible. Apply for 100 remote jobs, interview, smash the interviews, ask for top $ from all of them. See https://remoteok.com/ , etc. If on he…

>Kind of depends what you are getting paid, but if it is less then $100k say, you can easily find remote jobs that pay more, play them off against each other.

Someone from Asia who is pretty good at their work can get a fully international remote job that pays north of 100K USD? Is this practically possible or is it super difficult like say getting into MIT or CMU. I'm asking because this seems farfetched and I have no idea how these things actually do play out in the real world.

Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?

#228

If I am hiring outside the US, I'm doing it to save money. I'm willing to accept the downsides -- schedule differences, language barriers, etc, in order to save money. Otherwise I would just hire someone in the US. So if a foreign dev were to tell me I had to pay the US rates, I'd pass. I think you should negotiate for as much as you can, but it is unrealistic to benchmark yourself against US employees of a US compan…

Same, and I hold certain cultural biases too. Which is horrible, but also learned experience. Certain countries have stronger low level programmers, some cultures make for poor leadership traits, while others seem to create amazing UI/UX skills. Understanding there are no absolutes, and people are people, I just continue to observe some countries produce interesting niche skills. Like in my home town, C# is king.

Which country or countries do you see that have great UX folks?

Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?

#230

If I am hiring outside the US, I'm doing it to save money. I'm willing to accept the downsides -- schedule differences, language barriers, etc, in order to save money. Otherwise I would just hire someone in the US. So if a foreign dev were to tell me I had to pay the US rates, I'd pass. I think you should negotiate for as much as you can, but it is unrealistic to benchmark yourself against US employees of a US compan…

And what are you going to do if that dev moves to the US while working for you (such as on a partner visa)? Are you going to pay them more or fire them? I don’t work for less as an American Expat, I work for how much I’m worth (which is a lot more than local wages) and I live where I live because the money let’s my wife stay at home, in a nice house in a nice neighborhood instead of us both working our asses off just…

Actually many companies will adjust salary if/when they bring you to the USA (usually, not initially to the same level as an equivalent American worker).
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