[toomanybeersies]

Salary should be scaled in part by cost of living, otherwise it's unfair to people in high COL countries.

Gitlab does this when calculating salary [1] for their employees. It seems only fair to me.

[1] https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/global-c...

[jaggederest]

Why is it fair to subsidize people to live in high cost of living locations?

[scalesolved]

Probably best to rent a postal box in the Vatican City, collect that sweet super high pay check and actually live somewhere cheaper :)

[toomanybeersies]

Because otherwise, after COL, you might only save $10k per year in a developed country, and $30k per year in a developing country.

That would be just as lopsided and unfair to your remote workers as paying them all market rate, so that your employees in developed countries get paid $80k per year and your employees in India get paid $8k per year.

Or do you expect your developers in America to relocate to India?

[jaggederest]

Why not subsidize everyone's lifestyle so they all save the same amount of money, regardless of spending?

Would you pay more money for the exact same product made in a different city? How is hiring developers different?

[rodw]

If you've identified the "best" candidate for a position and want to hire or retain that person, you're now competing with the other offers available to that candidate (which include CoL-adjusted offers), not with the salaries you're paying other employees.

[toomanybeersies]

Well, I think the idea is meant to be that you get the best developers possible, regardless of where they are, while still trying to keep expenses minimal.

[detaro]

Gotta say, cutting pay just because someone moves feels icky.