If in an expensive location and are compensated accordingly (such that it is possible to purchase a property), you are strictly better off than someone who does the same in a lower cost area over time. After 10-20 years the person working in the high priced location will own an expensive asset while the other will own a low priced one. If they liquidate all assets, all else being equal, the person who lived in the expensive location is likely far ahead financially.
Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?
251–260 of 385 posts
Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?
#252Paying a knowledge worker based on their physical location will soon become a relic, if your company does not realize this… quit and switch jobs.
If your job requires you to be somewhere physically, your compensation is tied to what it would cost to replace you.
In my experience employers rarely know what their Cost of Vacancy really is… let alone their Cost per Hire.
I expect this will change.
Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You don’t have other options, and if you quit, they know there will be 10 other people ready to take you place for those wages. I'm just imagining this dude quitting and his manager suddenly realizing that no one else knows anything about the parts he worked on and how fucked they are now. Just because a bunch of people could take your job doesn't mean they'll give a shit about the job. Good, well motivated, employ…
> I'm just imagining this dude quitting and his manager suddenly realizing that no one else knows anything about the parts he worked on and how fucked they are now. I would bet its rarely a case. We like to think that we are irreplacable, but after our quit company/project is still moving on.
A lot of times they move on with larger technical debt, less understanding of their own systems, and less resiliency when things start to break. These issues accumulate over time especially if smooth transitions between technical knowledge isn't kept (like when employees are constantly jumping ship), and lead to places eventually hiring consultants for $1600 an hour to fix their technical mess.
It also depends how regimented the team is, places like Amazon have large numbers of coders on the same project, watching over each other. But they also compensate their employees well.
Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Your pay is based on the cost to hire replacement What is being described here is supply/demand economics. If you think you’re being underpaid, quit, find something else that pays you more. The reason why you won’t quit is the reason why the company doesn’t pay you more. You don’t have other options, and if you quit, they know there will be 10 other people ready to take you place for those wages. Part of the reason…
> You don’t have other options, and if you quit, they know there will be 10 other people ready to take you place for those wages. I'm just imagining this dude quitting and his manager suddenly realizing that no one else knows anything about the parts he worked on and how fucked they are now. Just because a bunch of people could take your job doesn't mean they'll give a shit about the job. Good, well motivated, employ…
most businesses don't care and don't understand the technicalities of deep nerdy work.
they are fine with throwing their money around until a problem is solved. and would much rather hire someone with 1.5x your pay than to give a 10% raise. its just a political / power thing...
internal politics and preserving imbalances in distribution of power is much more valuable than adding a little inefficiency to worker output
Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?
#255No post body was provided.
Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?
#256Earlier 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…
Imagine paying someone in my town where the median income is $39k and the median property value is $87k the same as someone in San Fran where the median income is $120k and the median property value is $1.15M. that would be unfair to everyone in my town who can't work remotely with a tech company that's in that area.
To anyone who thinks that I agree with what I said you are misunderstanding the way I said it. I'm just stating how things are. Cost of living is what dictates pay along with the value that you provide to a company but with remote work that gets adjusted to what the local cost of living is.
Plus I don't work. I'm disabled I collect SSI I get like $10,000 a year. That's it! I can't have more than $2k in my bank account. I can't invest. So uh, have fun making tons of money I could only imagine.
Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine paying someone in my town where the median income is $39k and the median property value is $87k the same as someone in San Fran where the median income is $120k and the median property value is $1.15M. that would be unfair to everyone in my town who can't work remotely with a tech company that's in that area.
I’ve been thinking about this recently, and I don’t think it is unfair or bad. Having more money and wealth in smaller towns will in the long term benefit the town, no? If anything in the long term it will be terrible for expensive cities, since people will eventually gravitate towards locations where they can have more for less. Personally for me the most important criteria is finding great schooling for my kids, I…
Yeah I don't think it's unfair or bad either I think everyone should be making a whole lot more money and universally I think people should be getting money.
Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine paying someone in my town where the median income is $39k and the median property value is $87k the same as someone in San Fran where the median income is $120k and the median property value is $1.15M. that would be unfair to everyone in my town who can't work remotely with a tech company that's in that area.
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.
Should and I agree.
Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am in Tokyo, working for an SF-based startup, and am making $180K/year. Translated into yen, it's about 2 or 2.5 times the amount I could hope to get locally. Full disclosure: I have no university degree, and am not a guru/superstar/10x engineer. I am intermediate-senior and competent, no more.
Do you mind me asking: Did you get that job through a job board or connections?
Job board, no relationship to anyone at the company … they reached out to me (my resume was available on the job board).
Re: Ask HN: Location based pay is killing my motivation, how do others handle it?
#260If 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…
As a non-US worker I definitely agree. My big advantage over US-based employees is that I'll work for less. Why would I insist on getting paid exactly the same as a Bay-area employee when I could ask for significantly less and be well ahead of what I could make locally?
Even goes that far that companies fire first in the US and then in other locations (assuming same performance).