[doozy]

It may be a splendid salary in some locations outside the US, it is not in many others.

Americans tend to believe they are wealthier than anyone else. Not so! Apart of the fact several countries in Europe have higher salaries (and cost of living than the US) there's the fact major cities are much more expensive than smaller ones, even in poorer countries.

Case in point: The most expensive cities in the Americas are Sao Paulo, Bogota and New York. You can easily enjoy a higher standard of living earning $70k in most of the US than you can in Sao Paulo or Bogota (I've lived in both, I know it for a fact)

[lohengramm]

Just for the record: $70k is still an amazing salary for São Paulo. Actually, you can find good enough developers for half of that.

[doozy]

That's not the point, the point is $70k in Sao Paulo buys you a lower standard of living than $70k pretty much anywhere in the US but in a handful of cities.

$70k in Sao Paulo doesn't go much further than $70k in New York (or Tokyo, London, Paris, Singapore...)

Do I have to remind you how much a computer, a smartphone or a car costs in Brazil compared to the US?

I doubt your claim of finding "good enough" developers for $35k. I was making more than that in my first job, fresh out of school, when I had zero real world experience, working remotely for an American company, and that was in the early 2000s.

Most companies would be elated to find even a competent html/css/js coder for that price.

[lohengramm]

I understood your point about comparing São Paulo to other cities. I just wanted to point out that, in absolute terms (not relative to other ṕlaces), $70k is a great salary for SP standards.

About the $35k claim, let's make the math: currently USD 35k ~= BRL 115k. 115k/12 ~= 9.6k. That means USD 35k/year is roughly BRL 9.6k/month, which is the salary of a Senior Java guy here. Idk about 2000, but it seems like you were doing very good back then.

[doozy]

Fair enough, but the point stands. If I were given the choice of a $70k/year position in Sao Paulo or, let's say, Miami, FL. I would take the Miami location without hesitating for a second. $70k goes a lot further there than in South America. Literally everything is cheaper in Miami than in SP (or Bogota, where I am).

Most software developers, as most people, in South America simply cannot afford the standard of living of a first world country, even when they make a great salary for local standards. Most things don't cost any less just because the local population cannot afford it (and very often they cost more).

You're comparing local salaries with remote salaries. It's very different, 95% of local guys are unemployable remotely due to a combination of lack of language skills (huge factor), low skill level, shitty work ethics (another huge factor) and being stuck in dead-end technologies like Java.

When American companies look for remote developers they want people who speak excellent/perfect English, are in the same time zone, have (at least) above average skills and are willing to work like Americans do (Americans are workaholics, you'll be surprised at how damn lazy/unproductive most people are). I've been working remotely for 10+ years and I've been asked to find local talent several times, and finding it is hard. I've only vouched for one guy in all this time, and he quit after 6 months and moved to the US (and the pay was spectacular for local standards).