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Comment by mbesto | Hacker News Reader

> bay area by moving to a lower cost of living area where mid-level employees can afford to buy an actual house relatively close to work?

Stripe is not hiring "mid-level" employees. Or at the very least that is not the type of people they are compensating to run critical roles.

Good luck telling a Senior Staff Engineer who makes $500k (plus probably a couple of million in RSUs) that they have to move to Albuquerque, NM.

The other reality is that people take jobs knowing that there are other jobs available if they themselves decide to "fuck right off".

TL;DR - Network effects exists in the physical world. Too many talented people live in the bay area for "quality of life".

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> Albuquerque, NM

This is not the only other option. Imagine telling an engineer, hey I'll pay you $500k a year in Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia, Chicago, or Boston? Rent is immediately cut in half and some states have no income taxes. Their disposable income essentially triples.

If you are still lying $500k, what’s the point of that move ? Also, network effect doesn’t change. I will never move out of SV/SF as I know I can walk down the street and get another $500k job

> If you are still lying $500k, what’s the point of that move ?

I think you mistyped here. The point of the move is that $500k in San Francisco vs $500k in any other city in the US (except New York) result in substantially different qualities of life. $500k a year income in Miami can get you a mortgage on a 3 bedroom house and a boat.

In SF, you get a mortgage on a 1 bedroom apartment.

SF is expensive, agreed, but it is not so expensive that you need to pull 500k/year to get a mortgage. That income is enough to mortgage a 2.5M home — well above SF’s median home price— with no downpayment

Yeah, but then I would have to live in Miami.

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!

The company wouldn't move if it still had to pay 500K.

500K in SF gets you a smaller place and plenty of discretionary income. Companies in other places can often give you a house, but not match the discretionary income.

Why not?

Pay your engineers 500k in a medium cost of living city and you will have the best employee retention of any company once they get used to their quality of life.

You probably won't be able to hire nearly the same quality of engineers. At least not at the same scale.

Atlanta compared to Miami, 500k can buy your 3 bedroom house and a boat on a lake.

> I will never move out of SV/SF as I know I can walk down the street and get another $500k job

This. Those salaries are basically correlative to cost living * demand for resources.

I wouldn't take it; I'd quit and go work somewhere else in the Bay Area. I have enough roots here in California that do a lot more for my quality of life than an extra two bedrooms in my house would. (And a boat? What a maintenance nightmare that would be! If I owned one, I'd pay someone to get rid of it.)

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