It's much easier to catch up if you can compete on price to start with. Why would a company take a chance on a developer in a new location if they've got to pay just as much? Once there's a critical mass of employers hiring in my location, competition will raise salaries up to parity, but sharing the surplus is what incentivises that competition in the first place.
I am not competing on price. I compete o quality. In your analogy, I am someone who the company needs to “take a chance”, the company is risking hiring a worse employee because I don’t live in SF or the US. That’s not how I see it.
The pandemic made a lot of people realize they can hire remotely and be fine. Why should I share the surplus with the company? I am a good developer and I will negotiate to get a better pay. Why wouldn’t I?
> Why should I share the surplus with the company?
The whole premise of being employed is that you make more money for the company than they're paying you.
> I am a good developer and I will negotiate to get a better pay. Why wouldn’t I?
So why would you rule out companies that pay location-adjusted salaries? If they're the best offer on the table then you're shooting yourself in the foot.
I rule out precisely because they never were the best offer in the table for me. There are companies that do not pay location-adjusted salaries that pay better. I was able to get a job in those the last two times I switched jobs.
A worse offer is a worse offer, a better offer is a better offer. If Gitlab isn't making competitive offers then of course take a better offer elsewhere, but what matters is the bottom line, not the method they used to come up with it.
Patently untrue. Setting up accounting in a new country may be a huge effort for the company.
The timezone alone may rule out a location.
Culture is closely aligned with location, and every company cares about "cultural fit" (while pledging to support diversity, of course) for better or worse.
Misaligned holidays, internet connection quality, even power supply disruptions... and so many things are directly affected by location.
That's all true but besides the point. Paying a developer less because they have bad Internet connection quality, lack availability or because they incur more administrative costs makes sense. Those are all things that can affect their work performance or cost. Paying a developer based on their cost of living or based on what their neighbors are earning is nonsense.
> Paying a developer based on their cost of living or based on what their neighbors are earning is nonsense.
I agree it "looks" like nonsense... but it's not. It's reality.
Different countries, even neighbouring countries, can have completely different salaries while doing the same thing... and things can cost completely differently too...
Just check the border between the USA and Mexico.
