[Mave83]

Why does it make sense to pay different per location?

Because you should pay equal. If you just use the same number on the payslip, some get more than others. It's like with currency. There is no reason to pay everyone 10k of their local currency, as that won't make sense. But paying 10k of the same makes none as well as for some this means they can have butlers, and other only get a bed under the next bridge.

Payment should be equal in Terms of living standard. Otherwise they are not equal.

[nightski]

Presumably if you are in a higher cost of living area you chose to live there because you obtain a higher standard of living (otherwise one may want to re-think that decision). Why should that be subsidized by your peers? Maybe I should get a raise to buy video games?

[bryanrasmussen]

>Presumably if you are in a higher cost of living area you chose to live there because you obtain a higher standard of living

right, or you were born there and have obligations and connections that keep you from saying well I am going to move now because my computations indicate that will be the optimal result!

At any rate, if I am in a higher cost of living area and your company will only pay the wage that fits the lower cost of living area that obviously means I will not work for you, and I think that is the case for anyone working in higher cost of living areas. So if you want to hire someone in higher cost of living areas you will have to handle that situation. And then we come back to the considerations that the parent poster said.

[wdb]

High cost of living area sadly doesn't mean a higher standard of living. For example, the living standard in UK or London is much worse compared to other countries in Europe (e.g. Netherlands or Belgium).

[chrischen]

People should call it “lifestyle based pay adjustment.”

[chrischen]

I think location dependent pay doesn’t make sense, but on the employee side it means they must now compete for the same job in a location independent way. Either way salaries will probably equalize (get lower).

[firstplacelast]

That seems ridiculous. If I buy something from an online store, I pay the same no matter where I live. I might pay more in transit costs/taxes, but I have personally never seen prices change for the actual product no matter where my shipping address is, which I put in last after seeing the price and adding it to a cart - and I use a VPN half the time, too.

Companies are purchasing labor (a product). Trying to undermine the costs because they have inside knowledge on how the meat is made (or where the meat is made) is just them using their leverage to extract a better deal. Totally normal tactic, they do this in every facet of their business. Employees should also grab as much leverage as possible from shopping their product (labor) to competitors or banding together with others (union/guild/etc) to get the best deal.

tl;dr It makes rational sense for companies to want to pay different per location. It makes rational sense for employees to say "cool, but no." There are many examples of price not being location-dependent in our capitalist system, at least many I have experienced at a consumer level. But maybe you are onto something and online consumer stores should all start changing the base prices once they see your zip code/state/type of credit card (I'm positive there are already some out there that do things along these lines).

[bryanrasmussen]

>If I buy something from an online store, I pay the same no matter where I live.

that is probably incorrect. Lots of places charge different based on location.

[dgellow]

Isn't it mostly due to different taxes, or when the product is in part manufactured locally (so different costs)?

[bryanrasmussen]

often, but there are solutions out there to allow you to set a location based price - generally based on analysis of what the market in the area will pay - for example here https://www.optimum7.com/blog/programming-2/location-based-p... you can do it but it is frowned up but as they say here:

"The functionality works like a charm, which is exactly how Amazon or Staples.com works! You get to sell the same product at different prices for different geographical locations.

During the location-based pricing process, we realized that no matter how frowned upon a system like this may be, your business needs what it needs."

which I mean, what your business needs is money, amirite!?

[dgellow]

I cannot read your link (I'm in Germany):

> Your access to this site has been limited by the site owner Your access to this service has been limited. (HTTP response code 503)

> If you think you have been blocked in error, contact the owner of this site for assistance.

> Block Reason: Access from your area has been temporarily limited for security reasons.

[bryanrasmussen]

weird, because I'm in Denmark. ah well, it's probably just because we're above Germany then :)

at any rate it's just a product offering:

Dynamic Product Pricing by Location via Zip-code or IP Recognition

so you can add this desirable feature to your CMS etc. etc.

They of course note that "When it comes to eCommerce sites, a location-based pricing strategy is not illegal, but it is frowned upon." but then they go into how great their product is which allows you to implement this.

They give reasons why a company might want to do this:

1. The company reduces prices of its products drastically in the North zone, thereby penetrating that market against competition.

At the same time, it increases their wholesale price exponentially across other regions where they are earning ample margins to overall increase revenue with minimal loss for a business like theirs which needs every penny counts!

blah blah blah

There are many factors that play a role in the pricing of a product including:

    Demand

    Distance from the warehouse

    Local / Regional Income Levels

    Local / Regional Competition

    Supply fluctuation

etc. etc. but in the end this product is to allow the seller to easily differentiate their price dependent on location, some of which will have to do with transportation, and some because they think they can get more money out of you.

In a recent discussion about Tinder charging more based on user profiles it was discussed that perhaps using PII to determine pricing, which location would be a part of, would be against GDPR.

[firstplacelast]

I did address this fact in my comment as well.