3 ms·

> What makes you think that this adjustments for cost of living would persist? Competitive pressures are towards paying for productivity, not for cost of living

> What makes you think that this adjustments for cost of living would persist? Competitive pressures are towards paying for productivity, not for cost of living. I think there is not a lot of competitive pressure, if there was, the salaries in Europe and Canada would already match the US ones. It's another thing that the COL is quickly converging, especially in big cities. Goods already cost pretty much the same (adjusted for local taxes), services and housing vary a lot and remote work allows to arbitrage them. So in medium term you'll have an option to work from Zurich at $$$ or from anywhere at XX % less (the option I'd pick). I have yet to see a reasonable argument for restricting migration, perhaps this would be a good topic for ASK HN? All economic arguments show free movement would lead to better labour (and capital) allocation.

xtracto 5y ago
Developer salaries have actually rised here in Mexico in the last 12/18 months. A recruiter mentioned to me a 30% increase all across the board. And I know Mexican Tech Leads who are making 90k USD . I myself got as hefty increase (doubled my salary) . All working here in Mexico for US companies. Its slowly but surely happening.
- eru 5y ago
  Thanks for the data! I am quite excited to see what kind of knock-on effects that will have on the rest of the economy in eg Mexico or India or Ukraine over time.
eru 5y ago
> I think there is not a lot of competitive pressure, if there was, the salaries in Europe and Canada would already match the US ones. Not necessarily, if there are productivity differences. However, I do agree that there _not_ being a lot of competitive pressure is a plausible option. I was asking, because your comment suggested that there was some market pressure, but just exactly calibrated enough to equalize salaries but leave COL adjustments in place? > Hiring remote workers directly would greatly speed up the process of salary equalisation (adjusted for COL).

xtracto 5y ago

Developer salaries have actually rised here in Mexico in the last 12/18 months. A recruiter mentioned to me a 30% increase all across the board. And I know Mexican Tech Leads who are making 90k USD . I myself got as hefty increase (doubled my salary) . All working here in Mexico for US companies. Its slowly but surely happening.

eru 5y ago
Thanks for the data! I am quite excited to see what kind of knock-on effects that will have on the rest of the economy in eg Mexico or India or Ukraine over time.

eru 5y ago

> I think there is not a lot of competitive pressure, if there was, the salaries in Europe and Canada would already match the US ones. Not necessarily, if there are productivity differences. However, I do agree that there _not_ being a lot of competitive pressure is a plausible option. I was asking, because your comment suggested that there was some market pressure, but just exactly calibrated enough to equalize salaries but leave COL adjustments in place? > Hiring remote workers directly would greatly speed up the process of salary equalisation (adjusted for COL).