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As long as GitLab continues to pay location-adjusted salaries for remote employees, talented employees don't want to work at GitLab either.
by alt_f4 7y ago
As long as GitLab continues to pay location-adjusted salaries for remote employees, talented employees don't want to work at GitLab either.
- benatkin 7y agoAgreed. This is a nice article about some of the problems with remote pay based on location: https://dev.to/sam_ferree/why-i-think-cost-of-living-pay-for-remote-workers-is-bs-5b68 https://dev.to/sam_ferree/why-i-think-cost-of-living-pay-for...
- ghaff 7y agoWhat a shitty post. >That apartment in the bay area has great weather, it's above a fun little Thai fusion dive bar, and within walking (or public transport) distance to some of the worlds largest tech conferences and meetups. Meanwhile, an employee in Iowa has to drive an hour for a P.F. Chang's and has to wake up 5am to shovel his driveway 5 months out of the year to get his kid to school. Could we inject just a little more Bay Area condescension for the flyover states? To be clear, I understand the visceral appeal of the fairness argument and reducing two locales to a single ratio is incredibly simplistic. But ultimately, almost every distributed company lets market forces set different salary ranges--which may or may not be a better approach than a preset ratio.
- zzzcpan 7y agoThey can only do that as long as there aren't many remote companies who compete for workers. If remote work becomes more mainstream they will have to compete globally. There are already tech companies that don't look at local salaries, but it's still far from mainstream.
- vonmoltke 7y agoWhy? What company doesn't adjust salaries based on location?
- nickthemagicman 7y agoHow do they ensure that their employees actually live at that location and dont just have a po-box or a buddy there to score an extra 20k a year? When you work remotely home is subjective. This is sort of a case of malicious compliance.
- jcadam 7y agoWhat if you start at a low salary because you live in Mississippi, and later decide you want to move to NYC. Do they automatically give you a raise?
- ghaff 7y agoAccording to their policies, if you want to relocate, you have to tell the company which will choose to extend you a new contract or not. (Presumably this partially relates to salary but they also make the point they're really not indifferent to location. They take things like timezones, proximity to customers, etc. into account.)
- alt_f4 7y agoSo, essentially, even though you're "remote", you are tied to your current location and you're their bitch. Reject companies like GitLab, don't work there, don't support that.
- ghaff 7y agoSome companies are more flexible than others, but it's pretty common that "remote" employees can't just pickup and move anywhere in the world they feel like it. Honestly, if one really wants to have that kind of flexibility they should probably consider consulting.
- alt_f4 7y agoGitLab hires all "employees" in non-mainstream locations as contractors anyways. So, legally, it is consulting. But they treat you like an employee anyway. Legal grey area?
- jcadam 7y agoAnd if you make a higher than average salary in a lower COL area, all of these "remote" companies want to give you a paycut for some reason.
- alt_f4 7y agoThe reason is clear: it's saving money by paying you less than what you're worth.
- Nimitz14 7y agoAnybody who doesn't grasp why location-adjusted salaries are a thing is probably not worth hiring.
- UserIsUnused 7y agoThey still pay very well in lower cost areas.
- wolco 7y agoSort of. If you have the skills and experience gitlab is seeking you could work for any bay area company for $160,000 or more remotely or $200,000+ locally (sv/sf) This ensures gitlab will get average, some good but very few great employees. Most will flock to google/facebook/etc and by pass gitlabs when they are paying double. In lower cost areas they are coming in at the top end but a lot of places are hovering in that range.