The UK’s points-based immigration system will scare off tech founders
wired.co.uk
wired.co.uk
Sure, won't be able to underpay people so easily as they have done with EU nationals and that is a good thing.
But I appreciate that cheap staff is always a boon for any company in whatever industry, but that's not fair on the people though really.
As for the scare tech founders off aspect, the article seems to slant it's focus upon European ones and that may well be true, more so as the UK will not be part of the EU.
Which in effect means that the playing field is fairer for all non-UK nationals as it removes that EU national privilege.
But let us see how it pans, and would be great to tag an article for review a year or two later on in which clarity and actualities can replace speculation.
What makes you say EU expats were easier target to underpay in contrast to non-EU ones?
IMHO from my experience they just try to underpay everyone but have more success with non-EU expats as they have less freedom of movement than the EU one and their visa is tied to an employer in the beginning so their options are much more limited than the EU expats who can work for any company in any EU country.
Easy - EU nationals had the right to work so no visa requirements at all, which would entail having a certain level of salary - now that will apply to all - how can that not be fairer?
Though remote workers will always be a thing - especially in tech, so there are always ways around everything.
I understand your non-EU expat friends are happy with less competition on the market, but the minimum salary a highly skilled non-EU expat had to have to qualify for visa was in the 36K ball park which is comically low for someone advertised as highly skilled on UK(mostly South of England) CoL. There is no way any highly skilled EU expat would work for less than that to argument that they're responsible for wage dumping.
EU expats are avoiding the UK now not because they might not meet the new visa requirements, but because of the insecurity Brexit brought and they have other equally attractive options like BeNeLux, Scandinavia, Switzerland or Germany.
Totally agree, why would they want to work here when better opportunities and cheaper living costs, London is darn expensive, as are many parts of the UK. For me Estonia was always the best choice even when the UK was in the EU.
Who gets to determine what's "cheap"? Look at it from the business' perspective, perhaps your asks are exorbitant, way too disproportionate to their abilities - salary-gouging by constricting supply - and end-up sinking the business.
Nothing personal with those businesses but some of them (you know who they are) are exploitative and only help to aggravate the ever increasing inequality.
It's very easy to scoff at "cheap labor" when in my experience it's far more often than not, the entitled , incompetents (they pair often) who complain. Just because someone feels entitled to a <£ some high number> salary means they are worthy of it. In fact, oftentimes not!
If I'm trying to rent out a place and nobody wants it, then I need to adjust my price expectations if I want to rent it.
I am one of the "evil" business owners you speak of, and there is no way I will pay the exorbitant salary expectations from (mostly) undeserving people. I would much rather outsource and hire people in Ukraine, Russia, etc. Sorry to break your heart, but If I pay $x then I would expect $ x+<delta> value from hiring someone, that's the core of any business.
To use your analogy, if I am trying to rent out a place, and it's basically a tent & a sleeping bag (which in the current job market it is) , I would focus on making it worthy of the asking price or lower my ask.
Sauce for the goose == sauce for the gander.
This underpaying of EU nationals relies on the naivete of EU nationals, but people get wise to whats going on fairly quickly.
Finally, the trade works both ways. People weren't just going to the UK for work. They were also being hired and sent their to facilitate trade with other EU members.
This is going to be a double whammy for the UK tech scene. First, by leaving the EU, the UK hugely shrinks a company's addressable market and reduces the incentive for anyone to come here to start a company instead of somewhere with a bigger market, like the US, Germany, or whatever.
Second, by making it as hard for EU citizens to get a visa to the UK as it is for them to get one the US, there's going to be a lot less incentive for people to come to the UK. The UK is a great place to live, but tech jobs here have a lot lower pay than the US and there is a much smaller tech scene. If the effort for moving to both is roughly the same, a lot of people are going to follow the money.
Go into any dev office in London and you are likely to find as many Spanish, French, etc. developers as British developers. By cutting out that supply of labor, it's going to get a lot harder to hire developers and there will be less developers around with ideas who have the legal ability to start their own company. Maybe that will push local wages up, but maybe it will just depress the tech scene overall and push more business to other countries.
[EDIT ADD] https://startupestonia.ee/why-estonia well worth reading that and shows how Estonia would be the best choice for any EU startup anyhow
2-3 years experience, web front end and/or B2C marketing
Equally, front end and marketing are not my area's.
https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/estonia-front-end-devel... may be of some help for you though.
Tell that to all the US firms that dominate European markets. Both software and services are tariff free under WTO rules. It would be no harder for British companies than American companies. Perhaps easier - there's a reason Barnier et al keep freaking out about "level playing fields".
The changes around how IR35's being addressed seem a much bigger issue to me, not that even that will affect every startup.
That and IR35 effectively treats you as an employee with all the associated tax aspects and none of the perks - no holiday pay, no sickness pay, other company aspects.
Which is irksome given how if your building a house instead of software, you get special NI perks and other aspects....
Sad cruz is that tech is a new trade in the grand scale of things, no unions or the like that other established industries have and equally - when the certifications in tech are so dynamic and change each year compared to those other longer established industries like construction, accounting.... there are times you kinda feel shafted.
Which is why I got out of contracting last century, then ironically joined a company working on a project that ended up busting 80 hour weeks and only paid core hours and the ew contractors we had, well they got their hourly flesh.
But hey, being good at tech, don't mean you're good at business, or indeed negotiations for remunerations - I know I'm terrible upon the later and sold myself short too many times. Sure you learn, but it is one of my kryptonite area's.
The level of change is just quite dramatic, and the returns are not at all favourable in any comparison.
I have been doing this for a long time now, many many years and have worked on many projects, in many companies. There is definitely a massive benefit of flexible and highly skilled developers for companies that need projects off the ground quickly. I am very interested to see how this single change alters what many companies are able to push out in the UK post April.
While there appear to still be the potential for Outside IR35 contracts, I have many colleagues that are sat on the sidelines already, waiting.