I think it's justified to some extent. Cost of living in different countries varies greatly, and for the most part companies aren't thrilled to pay significantly more than the market.
Living in India is far cheaper compared to San Francisco, so one could argue that by paying employees the same amount, your Indian employee will be significantly richer compared to his American coworker. Is it fair? I don't think so. There's no silver bullet obviously.
Also, don't forget that in different countries average compensations can be quite different regarding what they contain (pension, study funds, 401k...), where these things might not be applicable in other places - how would you compare them?
With all that, if an employee in SF chooses to move to a suburb to enjoy a more relaxed environment he/she should not be "taxed" for it in any way.
Jon is a self-taught programmer, started in video games but now does web development. He follows principles, argues for scientific software development, and does not like writing in the 3rd person.
But by your logic I should move to SF first, get hired, then immediately move back to the suburbs. To take advantage of the higher pay that won’t get normalised. Having to renegotiate every time I move leads to all kinds of weird situations, when nothing about my relationship with the employer has changed.
Instead if the solution is to pay people what they’re worth to the company it’s kept simple: It doesn’t matter where you live, go to countryside to be rich if you’d like it’s your choice.
Well I get why you may think so, but that was not my intention, so I'll try to make myself clearer - there should be no salary gap between a metropolitan area and the surrounding suburbs. Heck - there should be no salary gap if you move from SF to NY (I am not from the US so I can't compare cost of living, but I assume it's similar).
However, when we're talking about different countries or even continents I think my original point still stands - cost of living plays a big role in overall compensations.
The problem it's that if I live in a poor country and can't afford to go into a rich country. I'll be tied to my salary forever, the quality of life also changes, for example: In Brazil, earning $5k it's really rich, whatever, I don't have the freedom to do this because of the problem that the country has with security, I don't have the same buying power that I could have in a rich country.
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I think it's justified to some extent. Cost of living in different countries varies greatly, and for the most part companies aren't thrilled to pay significantly more than the market.
Living in India is far cheaper compared to San Francisco, so one could argue that by paying employees the same amount, your Indian employee will be significantly richer compared to his American coworker. Is it fair? I don't think so. There's no silver bullet obviously.
Also, don't forget that in different countries average compensations can be quite different regarding what they contain (pension, study funds, 401k...), where these things might not be applicable in other places - how would you compare them?
With all that, if an employee in SF chooses to move to a suburb to enjoy a more relaxed environment he/she should not be "taxed" for it in any way.
But by your logic I should move to SF first, get hired, then immediately move back to the suburbs. To take advantage of the higher pay that won’t get normalised. Having to renegotiate every time I move leads to all kinds of weird situations, when nothing about my relationship with the employer has changed.
Instead if the solution is to pay people what they’re worth to the company it’s kept simple: It doesn’t matter where you live, go to countryside to be rich if you’d like it’s your choice.
Well I get why you may think so, but that was not my intention, so I'll try to make myself clearer - there should be no salary gap between a metropolitan area and the surrounding suburbs. Heck - there should be no salary gap if you move from SF to NY (I am not from the US so I can't compare cost of living, but I assume it's similar).
However, when we're talking about different countries or even continents I think my original point still stands - cost of living plays a big role in overall compensations.
The problem it's that if I live in a poor country and can't afford to go into a rich country. I'll be tied to my salary forever, the quality of life also changes, for example: In Brazil, earning $5k it's really rich, whatever, I don't have the freedom to do this because of the problem that the country has with security, I don't have the same buying power that I could have in a rich country.