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First, what do you mean by “should”? In the predictive sense, if a company can hire a remote employee to do a job for $X per year, or a different remote employ
by pmiller2 6y ago
First, what do you mean by “should”?
In the predictive sense, if a company can hire a remote employee to do a job for $X per year, or a different remote employee to do the job equally well for $0.9X per year, the rational economic choice is to prefer the lower paid employee.
In the normative sense, the employee is selling their ideas and labor. Those things don’t change in value when they move, at least not within the same time zone. So, if you’re selling your labor and ideas in one location vs another in the same time zone, you “should” get the same no matter what.
We all know which of these scenarios actually happens in real life, and it’s because the power disparity between employee and employer is so skewed in favor of the employer. And, as I’ve alluded to, time zone can change things, because having an employee whose normal work hours allow them to respond to incidents that would be happening in the middle of the night can be valuable. Conversely, if a company depends on synchronous communication, having work shifts overlap is valuable.
- RangerScience 6y ago> Those things don’t change in value when they move, Not quite accurate. Proximity and access to other intellectuals, creatives, professionals, etc; as well as any personal differentials in happiness all have an impact on their ideas and labor. That's (afaik) part of why people congregate in offices and universities (to give two examples). Although - just as remote work results in "proximity and access" meaning something different now for offices, same goes for remote socializing.
- pmiller2 6y agoThat is why I was hypothesizing the workers both did the job equally well, which, in a remote scenario means their output of ideas and other work product is equally valuable.
- RangerScience 6y agoAh. That wasn't clear from your wording. "When they move" sounds like you're talking about one person changing to a different locations, rather than comparing two people in different locations.