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

We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

weworkremotely.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 267 posts

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#31

Post by cstejerean »

kcorbitt wrote: post #18
RyanZAG wrote: post #8

Browsing through these jobs is enough to kill your faith in humanity. I don't think I saw any I'd want to work for regardless of salary. Cases in point: We're looking for a younger developer ... There will be no compensation for this job https://weworkremotely.com/jobs/20 You will be working with interesting people, namely me. https://weworkremotely.com/jobs/10 EDIT: I take back the initial statement, there are a lot…

Although to be fair, that job 20 does offer equity in the company in lieu of monetary compensation. Maybe not what you're looking for, but still a different beast than working for free.

There's a difference in theory. In practice it's equivalent to an unpaid internship + lottery tickets.

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#32

Post by princess3000 »

agentultra wrote: post #30

It'd be nice if remote working opportunities didn't come with national borders. The border-less nature of the Internet and knowledge-based work doesn't seem to require geographic location and yet due to complex logistical restrictions most of these job postings are US-only. Kind of a weird place to be. I wonder if there's some kind of hack that could allow small companies and startups to get around the policy issues…

It's difficult to hack around a state's desire for tax revenue

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#33

Post by nawitus »

a track record of getting stuff done

I wonder how one can prove to have a track record of getting stuff done. If we exclude hobby projects / open source contributions, I have no idea how I could show any kind of track record. I'm not allowed to talk about the projects I do at work, for example, and I don't have time or motivation for hobby projects after work.

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#36

Post by zura »

ljoshua wrote: post #16
zura wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just hire people as contractors and it is extremely easy. They send you invoices periodically, you send them money through regular bank wire transfer.

There are limits to how much you can do this as a US-based company, and if you overstep the bounds the IRS will come a-knockin'. I imagine it's much easier to hire someone as a real employee inside the US, and based on the size of many of the companies, they probably don't have the accounting or legal resources necessary to deal with real international employees.

It seems to be a US-only phenomenon. I have yet to see a non-US company which allows remote working and restricts the location within its country.

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#38

Post by stakecounter »

cstejerean wrote: post #31
kcorbitt wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although to be fair, that job 20 does offer equity in the company in lieu of monetary compensation. Maybe not what you're looking for, but still a different beast than working for free.

There's a difference in theory. In practice it's equivalent to an unpaid internship + lottery tickets.

You can't influence the outcome of a lottery ticket (aside from picking rarely chosen number sets). You can influence company success. In practice there is still a difference.

Edit: I'm responding to the general idea of startup equity being equal to a lottery ticket. I haven't read the specific job posting in question.

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#40

Post by pmjordan »

zura wrote: post #12
agentultra wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxes and international payments are a huge pain would be my guess.

Just hire people as contractors and it is extremely easy. They send you invoices periodically, you send them money through regular bank wire transfer.

As far as I can tell, the IRS (US tax collecting agency) requires a tax withholding on anything a US company pays an employee/contractor abroad. By default this is 30%, but if the person in question files US tax returns (despite never setting foot in the country) I think it goes down to 10%, and if the employee's country has a double-taxation agreement with the US, the 10% can be offset against the home income tax. Still, having to deal with that kind of paperwork is a huge burden on both employer and employee. I would not be surprised if this also caused extra hassle when you do visit the US on occasion as they'll assume you're trying to work there illegally.

Of course, making this kind of thing not worth your while is the whole point of protectionism. IIRC, India has a similar arrangement.

One way around this is presumably to open a branch office in another country, and have contractors work for the branch.

Post reply on HN