[pritianka]

"Additionally, the calculator's attempt to handle cost of living fails to address hot markets outside the US (hello from Montreal), treats many countries as way more homogeneous in cost of living than they really are, and gives a seemingly quite inadequate 17% adjustment for contractors. That doesn't cover legal and accounting fees, paid time off of various types, the cost and limitations in health insurance coverage attainable by one-person companies, normally employer-side retirement contributions, etc."

I, personally, did not know about the way we treat intl comp on the calculator because I do not work in people ops. I found it useful new information.

[ahkurtz]

Thank you. I understand. I know PR is difficult and I really value the candor. I am very concerned personally about what Gitlab represents for my industry, but if you are all willing to speak directly to challenges on it that goes a very long way. I hope you can understand also why people have these concerns.

It seems to me that the reverse of your policy would be best for the world. If you free people to move, they can choose community, friends, family, politics over being tied to a single geographic location where most of the activity is. This would help with availability of technologists in many disadvantaged locales, and would provide an influx of taxable income and consumer spending locally. This should have the ultimate effect of improving economic conditions in depressed areas, and when that happens you can actually come back and reduce everyone's wages across all locales because the economy is healthier and more robust. It works out for the owners too in the end, if they take a long enough view.

[Vinnl]

> If you free people to move

I guess it depends on your perspective whether this is the case. With the current policy, if the implementation works, GitLab employees should be free to move anywhere without sacrificing anything in terms of living conditions. If you live somewhere with low costs of living, you can move to your community in an area with higher costs of living, without noticing in the amount of things you can purchase. The same holds true when you move to an area with lower costs of living, but of course, you'd get paid less.