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by closeparen 3277 days ago
Silicon Valley objectively, measurably does not care about engineers being cheap. If it did, tech companies would open engineering offices in the Midwest where 1/3rd the salaries would let employees live 3x better.

I don't think this works as an explanation.
4 comments
lj3 3277 days ago
If they don't care about engineers being cheap, why did Google, Apple and Intel collude to keep wages down?

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/16/silicon_valley_415m...

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closeparen 3277 days ago
You don't have to care to pick up free money off the ground. Wage-fixing didn't involve any downside or tradeoff until they got caught.

If they cared about cheap, they'd be willing to take on tradeoffs like communication overhead with satellite offices in low COL areas, potentially increased risk of a bad hire by making the interview pass rates higher, etc.

Even if you want a particular engineer very badly and money is no object, you're going to offer just enough to beat his next best offer. You're not going to 10x it. That would be waste.

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sidlls 3277 days ago
I don't know what you think SV salaries are. 1/3 of typical engineering salaries here would be about $40k year. In the midwest that is going to buy a very modest lower-middle class lifestyle if one doesn't have debts.

Also, cheap is relative. $120k/year sounds like a lot, and it is a lot. But relative to the value provided it's pretty small. Also, these companies work together to suppress wages. It helps that so many willingly play the "work for free" game by contributing to these companies' open source code with no compensation. Workers in SV are cheaper than their salaries make it appear.

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someguydave 3275 days ago
I'm always confused why the shareholders in these tech companies don't throw a fit over the very expensive locations that the big SV firms occupy. A huge chunk of their engineering talent comes from the Midwest and overseas, so why not relocate to Nebraska?

I suspect the upper management really doesn't want to move because they already have nice spots in SV.

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brooklyn_ashey 3277 days ago
Actually, the real estate was reasonable in the Santa Clara Valley/South Bay before they came along and made it $$$$$$. The same would happen in the Midwest. Look at Denver. So, yeah, they do care about cheap.
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