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> The problem I find with remote work usually is that people pay you less than if you work onsite. Is this actually a problem, or even particularly surprising?
by Nacraile 8y ago
> The problem I find with remote work usually is that people pay you less than if you work onsite.
Is this actually a problem, or even particularly surprising? Remote positions provide massive non-monetary benefits to employees (flexibility in general, but particularly: you can live wherever you want, including on the road, with no commute, in low cost-of-living areas, closer to other things you value, etc). These benefits attract more applicants, which alters the supply/demand balance, with predictable effect on market salary. Remote work should be understood as a win-win, where the employee gets significant quality-of-life and maybe reduced cost of living in exchange for somewhat reduced salary, and the employer gets significantly reduced costs (directly in terms of salary and office space, indirectly in terms of easier recruitment) in exchange for (maybe) somewhat harder management. If you don't like the employee-side trade-off, tough to be you, because you're competing against a lot of people who do.
> when it's remote you compete with people in India, China
It's not clear that this is really true. It's relatively easy to run a distributed organization that has a common native language, legal system, and continent. Language barriers, massive timezone discrepancies, and ..challenging international legal systems make successful management much harder. In practice, it seems that many companies are unwilling to take on those costs and risks.
- shubidubi 8y agoSo you say because I choose to live in different place and potentially increase my happiness I should get a pay cut?
- ngould 8y agoA more apt question might be, would you be willing to take a pay cut to achieve an increase in happiness and live wherever you want?
- scarface74 8y agoIt's not about shouid. It's about supply and demand. There are only X number of qualified people in any geographic area that are available to work on site. There are Y people who are available to work remotely. The supply of qualified people who are available to work remotely is much greater.
- xtracto 8y agoExcept that someone working remotely will usually have to absorb additiona costs of: - Internet - Electricity, water and other utilities - Office maintenance (i.e., how much of his home space is being used by the company? including surface, desks, equipment, etc) - Sometimes food In Mexico all this toghether can get to up to $500 USD a month per person. Can't imagine how much that would be in the USA.
- scarface74 8y agoMost technology people have internet access anyway. I would also assume you would have some place in your house to use as an "office" even if it's just a kitchen table for your laptop or a desk in the corner of your house somewhere.
- flamtap 8y agoIf you are working from home in Canada (as a self-employed individual), you can claim some of those expenses on your taxes entirely, and a portion of some others. I can write off my entire phone and internet bills and all office supplies. I can also include a portion of my rent (or mortgage) and utilities proportional to the size of my office and the total square footage of the dwelling. The actual list of claim-able expenses does not end there. I also burn a hell of a lot less fuel since I have no commute.
- digianarchist 8y agoThe reason I am reluctant to go self-employed in Canada is the idea of covering all of my dental fees and pharmacare. I wouldn't have a second thought of doing this in the UK because that is subsidised/covered.
- flamtap 8y agoYeah, that definitely has to be factored into the salary. I choose to pay for an individual insurance plan for these things, including disability insurance which should be accounted for as well. I don't have any dependents, but that would certainly change things as well.