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Comment by mancerayder | Hacker News Reader

I want to ask a question to the group, too. How do the companies headquartered in SF and NYC and places like that decide your salary and if you are in a cheaper locale? Do they give you a lower salary, are taxes weird, is there an awkward conversation with HR? Has anyone moved from an expensive place to a cheaper place and dealt with awkward company reactions (HR)?

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Some companies have released salary percentiles (relative to HQ) for the adjustment to remote. For example, a company in the Bay Area published this for total comp. Most companies seem to be following similarly:

Bay Area: 93%

NY: 93%

Seattle: 92%

Los Angeles: 91%

Boston: 91%

San Diego: 88%

Denver: 86%

Chicago: 85%

Portland: 83%

Philadelphia: 83%

Atlanta: 83%

Minneapolis: 83%

Austin: 82%

Florida: 81%

Salt Lake City: 81%

Phoenix: 81%

Washington: 80%

Detroit: 80%

Houston: 80%

RTP: 80%

Ohio: 80%

Vancouver: 73%

No matter where you are, it won't go below 70%

Aren't most of those high cost of living cities? Not really rural remote working cities.

Yeah fair, guess the interesting bit is that it won't go below 70% anywhere across the US

It's a real morale breaker to be told that your labor is worth less because of where you live when everyone is remote anyways.

> It's a real morale breaker to be told that your labor is worth less because of where you live when everyone is remote anyways.

Well don't feel bad because that's not how it is. It's not about what your labor is worth. It's about supply+demand.

Imagine how people in other countries feel.

Certainly not great, I imagine.

That being said, there is a substantive difference between being hired at a salary and suddenly having your salary cut. The former is why companies try to hide what everyone is paid; to avoid the lower paid workers from feeling screwed and advocating for more money. But having corporate come in and say “your labor is now worth 70% what it was before” creates unavoidable feelings of being valued less by the company, because that’s exactly what’s happening.

You're worth what you ask for, not what someone think it's worth. You'll get what you ask for more often than not.

People have worked remote before covid, without any salary adjustments.

HR has to set up these policies in place to make sure their salaries line up with local averages. However, it's up to the management to decide who will fill the positions and at what salary. They will make adjustments to make sure their top performers are compensated properly.

Worst case scenario, move to another company.

It's morale breaking to be reminded you're just a line item on a spreadsheet first and foremost. Especially in a tech organization of a non tech company.

It sucks but at least we have high relative salaries.

"Cost-of-living adjustment" is the biggest wage fixing scheme since the 2005 Apple-Google wage fixing agreement. You are doing the same work, producing the same results, while the company is saving a ton of money on office rent, parking, security, electricity, etc. At the same time they declare you have to take a pay cut!

Do not agree to it. The company has no negotiating position here - it will be very disruptive and costly to replace employees right now. HR can only make an example of a handful of people before terminations prove so disruptive that the wheels start coming off and the other managers go after them.

If you have already agreed to a cost-of-living adjustment, renegotiate. If they fire you because of the cost-of-living adjustment, join a class-action lawsuit. If for whatever reason you think you cannot negotiate in your own best interest (not true! as a tech worker, you have most of the negotiating advantage), unionize.

Some of the larger SV companies publicly said they would be adjusting salaries for employees that chose to move to lower cost of living locations. Typically when this is done, it uses the numbers provided by the government to provide the adjustment numbers.

As someone working remotely for a company out of the Midwest where things are cheaper, they specifically mentioned that they would not be adjusting salaries up or down if their employees choose to move.

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