I've noticed from recruiter email that some US companies have decided to go fully remote (no doubt due to COVID-19) and have started looking for talent in Canada, offering a bit more compensation than our local one (not parity) so I expect this effect will start pushing salaries up outside the US, starting with us in Canada due to time zone/language/culture.
Canada has out of control immigration quotas, that will push wages down, and quite a large brain drain to the US.
Ask HN: How to increase SWE salaries in Europe?
141–150 of 974 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to increase SWE salaries in Europe?
#142Remote work will take care of this. Developers will work for companies in USA that can pay more. Companies want developers and will pay market rates. We will converge towards a global rate for devs.
Re: Ask HN: How to increase SWE salaries in Europe?
#143Make non-competes illegal (or, well, unenforceable).
Are non-competes common in Europe?
Re: Ask HN: How to increase SWE salaries in Europe?
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of folks here are calling out the lower pay for SWEs in Europe and Canada as a failure - but also praise the low wealth inequality and low income inequality in Europe and Canada. You can't have low inequality by definition if you decide to start paying one group a ton of money. Well, this is a lot like the housing conversation in the US. "I want my house to go up in value, and be a great investment!" Also: "Why…
The wealth inequality debate is about Bezos and wall street ceo's type thing - I don't think many people have issue with some making $50k and others making $200k.
At the end of the day Bezos makes headlines but his personal largesse has very little effect on most people in the country. It has very little impact on the lives of folks getting "pushed out" of SF. That's the folks he employs.
Re: Ask HN: How to increase SWE salaries in Europe?
#145One way things might become more competitive is when more people become freelancers. The freelance market is more volatile than the rigidly regulated traditional labor markets allowing for larger pay increases during good times (and also decreases during bad times), in general, it approaches a more realistic compensation of real added value. Personally I've greatly benefited from becoming a freelancer in Europe and h…
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Re: Ask HN: How to increase SWE salaries in Europe?
#146Remote work will take care of this. Developers will work for companies in USA that can pay more. Companies want developers and will pay market rates. We will converge towards a global rate for devs.
If by "take care of" you mean put downward pressure on European wages, then sure. Unrestricted remote competition would benefit 3rd world developers and the 1st world employers. But not the 1st world employee.
Re: Ask HN: How to increase SWE salaries in Europe?
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
> One option is to emigrate to the United States Not an easy feat. Most would be reliant on the H1B program.
Which is not an issue for people immigrating from Europe.
Re: Ask HN: How to increase SWE salaries in Europe?
#148I got my higher education for free. I expect to save nothing for my children or their education. I expect to have to put aside very little for retirement. The thing is, I just can’t find an argument why I should be able to get very rich doing my job. It’s a comfortable job. It pays a good salary. I got here by taking no risk at all. I wouldn’t want to switch jobs just to drive up my pay even if I could. I have other…
I'm kind of surprised by the idea of saving nothing for your children. Is it a symptom of the dog eat dog American system of capitalism that it seems kinda wild to me? I guess if you can be certain that their fundamental needs will be met, it isn't as important. But in the US your life can be pretty crap, even if not abject developing world style poverty.
Also if you somehow manage to increase your income, over half of it disappears in taxes and social security contributions.
Re: Ask HN: How to increase SWE salaries in Europe?
#149I got my higher education for free. I expect to save nothing for my children or their education. I expect to have to put aside very little for retirement. The thing is, I just can’t find an argument why I should be able to get very rich doing my job. It’s a comfortable job. It pays a good salary. I got here by taking no risk at all. I wouldn’t want to switch jobs just to drive up my pay even if I could. I have other…
I'm kind of surprised by the idea of saving nothing for your children. Is it a symptom of the dog eat dog American system of capitalism that it seems kinda wild to me? I guess if you can be certain that their fundamental needs will be met, it isn't as important. But in the US your life can be pretty crap, even if not abject developing world style poverty.
You still need to save for a pension in almost every European economy, one isn't given to you (state pensions in Europe, even in the UK, are contribution-based). Welfare systems in Europe are not redistributive like in the US, they are typically contributory (you get out what you put in). So there is no sense in which your fundamental needs will be met irregardless of anything else.
I think the issue with the US is that you have a very redistributive political economy, and so many people believe that those elements are the same everywhere AND they could have all the free healthcare...it doesn't really work that way (marginal tax rates on middle-class incomes are above 50% in some European economies, and top rates are usually lower than in the US...try doing that in the US).
Re: Ask HN: How to increase SWE salaries in Europe?
#150I got my higher education for free. I expect to save nothing for my children or their education. I expect to have to put aside very little for retirement. The thing is, I just can’t find an argument why I should be able to get very rich doing my job. It’s a comfortable job. It pays a good salary. I got here by taking no risk at all. I wouldn’t want to switch jobs just to drive up my pay even if I could. I have other…