It's 100% correct that's simply a negotiation, and this is another variable. But if you came at me and told me I had to pay you what I pay my US employees, my first response would be "alright, but you have to work US hours and speak perfect American English." Honestly, that's a good part of why we try to hire in one general area, in this case the US. There is a real cost to foreign developers who only speak passable English and who work on a schedule that has little or no overlap with US time zones.

There is a lot between "passable" and "perfect" American english. I have far from "perfect" English, but in all my jobs as software developer for american companies (3 so far), I got great feedback for my communication skills. Mostly, being remote, is written communication, but still.

I am close enough to US timezone (Brazil).

So, I guess you would be paying me what you pay US employees as well :)

> There is a lot between "passable" and "perfect" American english.

Agreed.

> I am close enough to US timezone (Brazil). > So, I guess you would be paying me what you pay US employees as well :)

Works for me. I have no particular prejudice against any culture, my concerns are entirely practical. If you can participate in meetings during hours the rest of the team will be awake, and your English is good enough that everyone can understand 100% of what you say, you have equal value to someone sitting in the US.

> you have equal value to someone sitting in the US

In a remote-only culture.

Sounds like you should hire Canadians!

We do have a Canadian office, in fact, though admittedly I don't think our company makes any effort to hire from there. At least nobody in my division of the company resides in Canada. Yet. One of my immediate coworkers is holds dual US/Canadian citizenship by birth and he is in the process of transferring his employment to the Canadian office because he is uncomfortable with increasingly acrimonious tribal politics of the US.

How much is the pay differential between the US and Canada offices?

Definitely surprising it’s taken so long for this to take off. But maybe because CA has a tiny population probably too small a pool?

Many people don't consider Canadian English "passable" :)

We're quite willing to misspell "colour" for US rates!

The true crime is pronouncing "Java" to rhyme with "have a". Hearing someone say, "JaaavaScript" is a traumatic experience :)

if you can stop pronouncing "south" as "soath" we might be OK with it.

Great advice on negotiation. I'll definitely use this going forward. Thank you!

It's a BATNA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_alternative_to_a_negotiat...

> I am comparing your offer to offers from other US-based companies that I received for remote work

If you go this route and you don’t have any other offers, are you willing to walk away or will you settle? Or if you do have those other offers, are you willing to take one of them instead of the one you’re currently negotiating?

This is the reason why remote companies have cost of living adjustments. They don't want to compete with other remote companies but nothing is stopping you from just applying only to remote companies.

Where do you even find these remote US jobs, they are either some big US companies that have local offices or US startups that don't take non-US people?

Big companies mostly only hire where they have offices, and almost none have offices in Brazil. So small startups that hire globally it is.

I find these jobs in either HN's "Who is Hiring?" or AngelList.

Good advice. I do think the arguments these companies use is ridiculous. I think it's possible that these companies are knowingly exploiting OP because he comes from a lower economic background. I say this as an Australian where tech jobs here pay about half or a third as much as a US startup job yet I've never had any startups try offer me an Australian rate.

I wonder if there's more to this story? E.g. does OP work for a consulting company, an outsourcing company, freelance, does he use project-based job marketplaces? I am just wondering the situation.

I work for a software company that's product based BUT I'm not in a software role as some people are assuming

The first line of your post says “Recently I got to know the pay scales that my peers and even junior developers are getting in the US/EU”. Why mention junior developers if you’re not in a software role? Are you also mad about the salaries of dentists in Canada or lawyers in Japan?