Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Wage Gap 2

elsajohansson.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 44 posts

Re: The Wage Gap 2

#31

Post by ericmcer »

P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote: post #29
hollywood_court wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m one of those people who already made their money and then moved to a LCOL area. It was supposed to be temporary, but I met my wife and she won’t move because of her family so we’re here to stay. We have zero debt. I paid off our mortgage in about 5 years. I put money aside for my son’s education the day she told me she was pregnant. We’ve spent the last 10 years spending less than 40% of our combined income annua…

I make a 6 figure salary in one of the lowest COL cities in the US. I sometimes see people claiming to make significantly more in SV, NYC, and forth. No way would I make that trade. My _PURCHASING POWER_ is probably vastly stronger than theirs. You say 40% but I could legitimately live off of 20% if I so chose. In fact, one of the problems I have is that I have absolutely no credit. As in, credit reports come back wi…

How do you not have a credit card? It seems impossible and pretty inconvenient to pay cash for everything these days. In many large cities cashiers will look at you funny when you start taking out cash to pay, a lot of things are self checkout and only work with cards, not to mention no credit card makes online purchases a huge hassle.

Re: The Wage Gap 2

#32

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

ericmcer wrote: post #31
P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I make a 6 figure salary in one of the lowest COL cities in the US. I sometimes see people claiming to make significantly more in SV, NYC, and forth. No way would I make that trade. My _PURCHASING POWER_ is probably vastly stronger than theirs. You say 40% but I could legitimately live off of 20% if I so chose. In fact, one of the problems I have is that I have absolutely no credit. As in, credit reports come back wi…

How do you not have a credit card? It seems impossible and pretty inconvenient to pay cash for everything these days. In many large cities cashiers will look at you funny when you start taking out cash to pay, a lot of things are self checkout and only work with cards, not to mention no credit card makes online purchases a huge hassle.

I have a debit card that can be used as a cash backed CC. There's a daily limit on it but if you call in and let them know it's coming through it's not an issue. The last time I had to do that was to pay for emergency surgery for my cat.

In addition, my debit card is attached to an account I use specifically for said card, and generally speaking I only keep enough money in it to cover what I plan on using it for, this limits the amount of damage someone can do by stealing my CC, and I don't have overdraft protection on it to further limit my exposure.

Re: The Wage Gap 2

#33

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

hollywood_court wrote: post #30
P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I make a 6 figure salary in one of the lowest COL cities in the US. I sometimes see people claiming to make significantly more in SV, NYC, and forth. No way would I make that trade. My _PURCHASING POWER_ is probably vastly stronger than theirs. You say 40% but I could legitimately live off of 20% if I so chose. In fact, one of the problems I have is that I have absolutely no credit. As in, credit reports come back wi…

My wife and I both have damn near perfect credit scores because we make our money work for us. Everything goes on a card but we’ve never once carried a balance over or paid any interest. We have many vehicles because I like older autos, but I buy her a new Honda CRV every 5 years for her commute. I call a dealer in La Grange, GA and they deliver it to the house and I hand them a check. If you don’t have credit I woul…

That's generally peoples reaction, I should get a CC with this technique or that technique. I don't need or want credit. And yes, sometimes people try to get smart and tell me my utility bill is credit. queue massive eye roll.

It's just not my thing.

Re: The Wage Gap 2

#34

Post by Eridrus »

The author (from their previous post) is primarily interested in US vs Rest of World comparisons.

I don't think it's fair, but the reality is that companies pay what it costs, and in Europe there are fewer companies willing/able to pay high salaries, so they are lower.

The thing that would bring about this change is more companies being willing to hire remotely, particularly in places like Poland.

Why are fewer companies hiring and competing on salary in Poland/etc than other countries? I have no idea, but that is the real barrier to higher salaries.

Re: The Wage Gap 2

#35

Post by xupybd »

*2. People are paid what a replacement would cost

Let’s suppose for a moment that employees are interchangeable resources without discernible differences and companies are profit maximizing entities. How is it possible under such assumptions that 2-5-10x salaries exist when 1x replacements are readily available elsewhere? To argue that people are only paid what their replacement would cost also requires an explanation why a garden variety remote employee (or a team of four experienced veterans) is not a replacement for locally grown organic talent? So far there is no convincing explanation to back that up. *

Because companies don't always go for the cheapest labor. There are other factors...

Re: The Wage Gap 2

#36

Post by hollywood_court »

P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote: post #33
hollywood_court wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I both have damn near perfect credit scores because we make our money work for us. Everything goes on a card but we’ve never once carried a balance over or paid any interest. We have many vehicles because I like older autos, but I buy her a new Honda CRV every 5 years for her commute. I call a dealer in La Grange, GA and they deliver it to the house and I hand them a check. If you don’t have credit I woul…

That's generally peoples reaction, I should get a CC with this technique or that technique. I don't need or want credit. And yes, sometimes people try to get smart and tell me my utility bill is credit. queue massive eye roll . It's just not my thing.

Credit may not be your thing but you’re effectively losing out on a good bit of money by not having one.

I don’t have an exact number in front of me, but I imagine that we receive at least $8k back annually in rewards from our various cards.

The only thing that doesn’t go on a card is the electric bill because they didn’t allow it until recently. But I believe they now do so my wife will change it soon.

In addition to the free money, it’s also safer. I would never use a debit card.

Re: The Wage Gap 2

#37

Post by [deleted] »

IshKebab wrote: post #27

The author needs to learn some basic economics. Supply and demand. I imagine they would also change their tune a bit if there was really no location based pay, so developers in Silicon Valley got paid the same as developers in India or China. Don't complain about how good you have it Americans.

[deleted]

Re: The Wage Gap 2

#38

Post by a_imho »

xupybd wrote: post #35

* 2. People are paid what a replacement would cost Let’s suppose for a moment that employees are interchangeable resources without discernible differences and companies are profit maximizing entities. How is it possible under such assumptions that 2-5-10x salaries exist when 1x replacements are readily available elsewhere? To argue that people are only paid what their replacement would cost also requires an explanati…

I'm not sure what you are getting at, could you please elaborate on some of those factors?

Re: The Wage Gap 2

#39

Post by a_imho »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #8
malfist wrote: post #2

I'm one of those "discriminated" against here. I live in kentucky, work for a FAANG company. My employer pays me less because of that, and you know what? I'm okay with that. My discretionary income after housing and basic living expenses are removed is way higher than that of someone in a HCOL area. I have a 3300 sqft house that was built in the last 10 years and a quarter acre of land. That costs me $1400/month. If…

Arguments against location-based pay generally assume that all employees would be given raises to match the company's most expensive market. Realistically, most companies aren't interested in paying everyone more just because some of their employees are in an expensive location. I would expect any location-independent compensation programs to move toward median compensation across locations, not upward toward maximum…

Might be true in some zero-sum sense if the highest salaries are already subsidized by the lowest ones, but let's say some company is already turning a profit on their highest paid employees, it should be theoretically possible to match those wages. Assuming the value of a unit of work is the same no matter where it is produced.

Re: The Wage Gap 2

#40

Post by a_imho »

malfist wrote: post #2

I'm one of those "discriminated" against here. I live in kentucky, work for a FAANG company. My employer pays me less because of that, and you know what? I'm okay with that. My discretionary income after housing and basic living expenses are removed is way higher than that of someone in a HCOL area. I have a 3300 sqft house that was built in the last 10 years and a quarter acre of land. That costs me $1400/month. If…

Fair enough, although being content and discriminated is not mutually exclusive. In fact, even if you are satisfied with your numbers you can sympathize with those who are not.
Post reply on HN