[darylfritz]

I like Basecamp's pay structure: it's static. It's more based on the role itself, and the value that role brings to the company. You're not penalized for living somewhere with a low cost of living.

> Our market rates are based on Chicago. Chicago isn’t the top of the market — you’ll find higher rates in Silicon Valley or New York — but it’s not far off either. So whether you live in Tennessee or Arizona or Alaska or Illinois, we pay the same.

> This means everyone has the freedom to pick where they want to live, and there’s no penalty for relocating to a cheaper cost-of-living area. We encourage remote and have many employees who’ve lived all over while continuing to work for Basecamp.

Source: https://m.signalvnoise.com/how-we-pay-people-at-basecamp-f1d...

[richardwhiuk]

So basically nowhere with a higher cost of living will work for Basecamp - fine, and they will be substantially overpaying anyone outside of Chicago.

That's fine, but basically it changes who you will hire.

[ghaff]

I'm not sure that's atypical though. Or companies make smallish adjustments based on location. They don't seriously try to compete with Facebook or Google on SV salary, know some people will work for them because they didn't get an offer from one of those companies, or prefer to work for someone else. Some people from those areas will take the job anyway and they're fine with not focusing on hiring developers in those geos.

[tpritc]

They then followed up six months later (December 2017) by raising that to the top 10% of San Francisco salaries:

> It started to increasingly seem like an arbitrary choice, and if we were going to make one such, why not go for the best and the top?

> That’s what we did. Starting 2018, Basecamp is paying everyone as though they live in San Francisco and work for a software company that pays in the top 10% of that market (compared to base pay + bonus, but not options).

Source: https://m.signalvnoise.com/basecamp-doesnt-employ-anyone-in-...

[pc86]

All that marketing text (and among the other docs in the linked Github repo) and they never actually say what their salaries are other than the vague indication that it's the 95th percentile for Chicago.