This argument of “fixing economies” is an invalid premise - Gitlab is a distributed company, they don’t bear the costs of operating a business in each of those locales. The business operating costs, nor revenue, are tied to locale. Why are salaries then? Because it is cheaper to pay the Nebraska guy a discounted $80k instead of paying everyone the same NYC rate of $140k, and use “local economy” as the scapegoat.

If they were a brick and mortar business operating in all these regions, fine, costs vary and it makes sense that salaries would too. But they are just using the excuse of locale to grow their margins, simple as that. It’s their business, and employees can work wherever they want. But let’s not pretend they are doing anyone any favors with that policy.