> Your compensation is made up of what the company expects for you to spend _because_ you're working in a particular location.
That's Google's model?! I can live 10 minutes away from the office or 1 hour away by train, I still live in the same city.
If I move my apartment 50 minutes closer to the office, I'm still going to the same office, but my rent will go up. I should get more compensation right? My compensation is based on what I'm expected to spend by location.
Funny, but off-topic story relating to this: I once had my debit card shut off because I tripped a fraud alert by being in 5 different cities on the same day. This was in LA, and I really was in 5 different cities that day, but I probably didn't drive 50 miles.
If I bought a Kia Rio, would they say "You have lower car expenses compared to other employees, we're going to pay you less because you don't need the money"? Or conversely, if I choose to buy a $150,000 car should I be able to tell Google "Hey you need to pay me more because I have very high car expenses?"
That's obviously silly. But if you want to live somewhere that a house costs $2MM, it's your employer's responsibility to foot the bill for it, and if I buy a house in Bentonville AR for 1/10th of the price, my pay gets cut?
Why _should_ they do get payed more.
If home office is a standard it's their decision to live in a expensive area.
People are payed for the work they do, not because they live in a privileged area. You could go as far as say it's a form of discrimination to pay people depending on where they live.
I mean are you next reducing payments for people transmuting a lot because they live in a cheaper area.
And then shouldn't you also pay less to people owning property because they have long term less living cost?
The actual problem is Silicon Valley and similar places being completely out of balance.
Google does not pay someone in Seattle more than AR simply because the rent is higher. The reason wages are higher is a result of people in Seattle demanding more money because their costs are higher, and if Google wants to attract talent there they have to offer a wage people will accept, that wage happens to be lower in Bentonville than Seattle
WFH changes the dynamic in that Google can now recruit from anywhere in the US, thus the competition for a given job is higher so in normal times that will mean a lower wage over all
There are many people that would not work for Google in the past in part because they could not or were unwilling to relocate to a city with a Google office, WFH eliminates this need thus more people will be willing to work for Google.
People keep saying this, but it's only true in an employer's market. In an employee's market, it works the other way around, because now the good employees have a wider choice of potential employers. Which kind of market do you think software development is?
If we move to Beverly Hills should that person get paid more than Seattle? (yes of course Google has to have an office there per these rules)
Should employees who choose to own a car be paid more than someone who uses public transit or their own bike?
You are paid $x in order to produce $y. Assuming our $y's are the same what we choose to spend our $x on should be personal and private.
Similar to me, living in the MidWest, there is no amount of money in the world that force me to move to Silicon Valley, the West Coast, or New England Area... None.... I would rather live in a box under a bridge.
Almost everyone does not care about the sellers costs (COGS). They only care or they can get what they want at a lower price from another seller.
if one can do the work remotely at the same quality as they would in office. i dont get why they should be paid less.
Why _should_ an engineer working from Seattle, where rent is ~2k for a 1bd, not get paid more than the engineer working from Bentonville, AR, where a 1bd is $800? Your compensation is made up of what the company expects for you to spend _because_ you're working in a particular location.
(Disc: I work for Google, opinion is my own tho.)