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Comment by bluGill | Hacker News Reader

COL is a terrible indicator. 1/3rd COL isn't really 1/3rd. If you have a large family the requirement of a large house/apartment will make your cost of living much worse in SF than 3x - while if you sleep in your car and cook on a camp stove your COL is the nearly the same in both places (car registration might be slightly more in CA). Both are extreme cases, but they get the point across.

While I would expect a somewhat lower salary outside of SF, it wouldn't be 1/3.

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> If you have a large family the requirement of a large house/apartment

Thanks. That's why I qualified that bit by noting that the COL curve may not be linear. Due to regressive taxes, housing minimum, etc.

But without hearing from folks actually in pittsburgh, it's hard for me, sitting here in SV, to know how good or bad $40k is.

But the relativity to SF isn't the most important part anyway. If the pay is below market, shouldn't HCL quickly find themselves without employees?

I lived in Pittsburgh for 8 years. It was eminently livable as a single grad student on a ~$30k stipend, but I wouldn't want to raise a family on that or thereabouts. Also, apartments may be cheaper but COL is an average over the whole metro area, and decent apartments or houses in a neighborhood you'd want to live in are a bit more. (Say $1000/mo for a nice 1-bed, or $300k for a decent house.) Keep in mind that cars, electronics, health insurance, and myriad other consumer goods aren't cheaper just because the city COL is cheaper. I'd probably want to make $60k or so to actually be comfortable and put some money away (edit: as a single person, and more than that with a family). (Fortunately, software engineers in Pittsburgh generally make quite a bit more than this, from what I've heard.)

I'm not clear on what these people were doing. $40k is probably more than you can make in fast food in SV. I would expect any programming job in the US would start at (just out of college) 60-70k, with quick raises to around 100k - if you are not making that much you can find a different job or work from home to pay that. Based on that (and other comments here) I'm guessing the people involved are not programmers and so not worth as much.

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