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by rlanday 2054 days ago
Does this difference in pay for remote workers based on city actually exist yet? I feel like a bunch of people are e.g. just telling Google they’re going to work out of Mountain View or New York and counting on never being asked to actually go to the office.
2 comments
Natales 2054 days ago
It does exist. I work for a ~30K software company, and they have a detailed pay multiplier scale depending on where you live. Furthermore, they will adjust your salary if you move from one area to another, and the rates are not insignificant.
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echelon 2054 days ago
This is the stupidest thing.

You're not worth more if you live in a different city.

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lotsofpulp 2054 days ago
I have yet to hear a better definition of economic worth than a buyer and seller agreeing on a price. Clearly, if an employer of 30k people is finding sellers of labor to agree to a lower price in certain areas, then sellers of labor in that area are "worth" that much. Similarly, the employer of 30k people isn't paying people more in certain areas for no reason either. They must have ran out of options for cheaper labor before they decided to pay more.
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echelon 2054 days ago
Sure, but sellers are inclined to shop around as well.

The seller has to agree on the price. You're hearing lots of unhappy sellers.

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sethhochberg 2054 days ago
In the pre-pandemic days when companies encouraging remote work were fewer and further between, it was very typical in my experience for them to pay market rate for your actual location - whatever location you met the qualifications for legal residence in.

I know of at least a few places that do/did sort of a globally averaged salary - their rates aren’t adjusted for location, but if you’re in a major North American city you might be disappointed. If you’re rural, or in less expensive parts of the world, their salaries were well above market.

Tax domicile is a real concern. The BigTech firms are smart enough to know and care where your actual legal residence is, and presumably they’re not going to let you pretend to be in SF to collect SF-adjusted wages while actually living in Michigan and collecting their legal benefits.

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