Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by contravariant 1382 days ago
Sure, but why is a company willing to suddenly pay more for someone depending on where they live? I get that competency and likelihood to succeed play a role, but if you have those I don't see why location should play a role at all.

I'm not saying they should give more/better offers to people in 'cheap' locations, I'm saying location shouldn't influence the offer at all.
2 comments
arlattimore 1382 days ago
Many companies can't hire people in 'any' location due to how their legal entities are setup in different countries, how many of them they may or may not have and possible complications with tax etc.

Once you get past that basic hurdle, you might find that the company is willing to pay more because they want a given skilled worker to be co-located with the team they will be joining to increase productivity which might come at a higher price than hiring into a different location but potentially trading off worker and/or team efficiency.

link
derefr 1382 days ago
> you might find that the company is willing to pay more because they want a given skilled worker to be co-located with the team

That's making a big assumption — that the team is in an HCOL area, such that "colocated with the team" is synoymous to "costs more."

There are a lot of companies who are headquartered in LCOL areas of the world; but still do location-adjusted pay, such that they might be paying someone working remotely from an HCOL area more than they pay the local team.

link
closeparen 1382 days ago
Competence is a continuous spectrum. People in its upper reaches are disproportionately likely to have already moved to talent hubs where their earning potential is highest, or to have acquired their competence working at companies there (and put down roots). Because they are still in talent hubs & have access to those markets, you cannot get them for less than talent-hub pay.

So you either: a) write off every candidate who is still in talent hubs, b) pay way above everyone else's competing offers so that your universal salary is also competitive in talent hubs, or c) pay based on location.

link