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Comment by itake | Hacker News Reader

as an American remote worker that interviewed there from Argentina, it was really frustrating for them to tell me they wanted to pay me $50k less because I choose to live in a cheaper city. Even though I was currently making market rate SF money.

They had the budget for me if I lived in SF, but they stuck with their lowball offer.

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It’s about fairness. Would it be fair if a SF hire had a lower wage (after expenses) than an argentinian hire? No. So Gitlab tries to optimize for every employee having the same disposable wage, no matter where they live.

That’s why they have this system.

It is not a fair system. Thats like saying, "well, Frank bought a BMW and owns a house, so he gets to get paid more." They chose to live in an expensive city and have an expensive life style.

If a hire lived with their parents in SF, does that mean they get paid less than their coworker that rents an apartment?

Fairness isn’t that simply defined.

As is tought in any philosophy class in middle or high school, there’s multiple needs.

Give everyone according to their needs? Everyone the same? Fairness isn’t that simple.

Gitlab is trying to find a solution that is fair in their opinion, and if you disagree with that, you are free to choose a different employer.

This reminds me of a recruiter telling me 'people don't work here for the money, they work here for the opportunity, and it's more than enough to live on' when asking for market rate salary. Big tech company, you can probably guess which.

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