[throwaways885]

There's two reasons IMO.

The first is that being in-person is valuable to many companies, enough so they're willing to pay a significant premium for it. If you're remote, then you get less.

The second is that it's all about negotiation. Companies by and large have the upper hand here, and would pay much lower wages if they could. FAANGs do not pay 2-300k salaries for fun, but because of the local competition.

Software developers are finally getting a taste of what the average citizen has to deal with compensation-wise, no wonder people are reacting badly.

[aaron-santos]

> The second is that it's all about negotiation. Companies by and large have the upper hand here, and would pay much lower wages if they could.

Employee wages are roughly bounded below by the cost to keep them alive, and roughly bounded above by the profit they produce. As for leveling the playing field between labor employers, there are known strategies for pooling labor's leverage. The gap is in convincing labor that those strategies are a net positive from them. For people who think that when they are hired that they are going into negotiations on equal footing, this is easier said than done.

[tayo42]

Don't we have more competition for employers now though. That's what I don't get. I have a whole world of companies to work remotely at, judging by my inbox alot want me. They will of course have to give me a pay increase to move. this seems logical to me but not to hr departments. Or even morale, is making your employees unhappy worth 30k a year.