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You also know that companies are looking to optimize margin, so those US level salaries are only temporarily. Given enough good people in India, or other low-in
by ako 3y ago
You also know that companies are looking to optimize margin, so those US level salaries are only temporarily. Given enough good people in India, or other low-income countries, that pay level will drop significantly.
- jojobas 3y agoGood enough people from India move elsewhere in no time. You still get what you pay for.
- northern-lights 3y agoNot necessarily. There are costs and obstacles to moving (for example moving from India to US is extremely difficult these days).
- jojobas 3y agoThere sure are, but there's Australia, Canada, Europe and Middle East. Results of offshoring to Bangalore is a stereotype, but it wasn't born from nothing.
- andrewaylett 3y agoNo -- it's born of attempts to cut costs. I've worked with teams from Bangalore who were staff of the bank I was contracting for -- they were amazing, but also not appreciably (if at all) cheaper than employing someone in London or New York. Several well-known banks had large offices, and competition for talent was high. No race for the bottom there. It doesn't particularly matter where you employ people, if you're trying to save costs by paying people less then you're going to have a bad time.
- ako 3y agoGood engineers will accept lower payment if their costs are lower. Similar to how amazon is operating, by lowering costs, minimizing margin, they can win over customers and win the market.
- jojobas 3y agoPeople don't work like that. They want their costs to be high because that's what it takes to live a nicer life. A tangential proof of my initial statement can be observed in US immigrant IQ levels, as compared to the general population.
- andrewaylett 3y agoConversely, if there is a shortage of known-to-be-qualified engineers then anyone who is any good will command a high salary regardless of their cost of living. If you want to pay them lower wages, they'll work for someone else instead.
- ako 3y agoWhy would they move away from family and friends if they could get equal pay in India, with more spending power?
- jojobas 3y agoBecause living in India sucks even if you're rich.
- ako 3y agoI recently visited some teams in India, they indicated quite a few coworkers moved back to India to be closer to family and friends. Not everyone is dreaming about moving to the US. And yes, I agree that I couldn’t see myself living in India, with all the pollution and overpopulation…
- jojobas 3y agoThat has to be a small minority. As for missing family, chain migration is still a thing. Nearly nobody is ever going back, even those who can't land a proper job just stay and drive ubers.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hiAndrewQuinn 3y agoSure, that's of course what we would expect. However - and I don't know about you - if my options were between getting paid $200 a month as a farmer with my dad, or earning $8000 a month as a software engineer in my room, I would probably still take the $8000 option, even if it only seemed like it would be around for 3 months. I may even be grateful for the chance, instead of angry that it wasn't a deal that was going to last in perpetuity. I admit I may be in the minority here.
- cybrox 3y agoIf you're just in time, yes. Everyone after you is out of luck and can develop software for $200/m then.
- the_arun 3y agoWhat makes you think US level salaries are temporary? Isn’t this the case for last 40 yrs? Why it will change now? Is it due to advance in remote work or more supply?
- ako 3y agoSalaries have been under big pressure from Asia.
- pooper 3y agoAlso from Europe, Canada, and Latin America.
- lazyasciiart 3y ago> Isn’t this the case for last 40 yrs? Is it? The only place I know off the top of my head is maybe ten years old.