Why won’t WFH crater US salaries?

Google
dental

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dental
Jan 23 35 Comments

I don’t understand macroeconomics or monetary policy. I think its confusing how exchange rates are settled upon. Basically eli5 why software engineering salaries wont reach a global equilibrium?

I’ve heard the arguments about how difficult it is to work across timezones, but I have to imagine a talented Vietnamese (just picked random emerging economy) developer would surely work graveyard shifts for 1/3 of my salary.

I’ve heard the explanations about how terrible things went when companies tried to outsource to India in the last few decades. I think telecommunication software is so much better now that a lot of that is mitigated.

Even Europeans get paid a pittance. Just can’t make sense of it. I understand that it takes longer to learn our skills than factory workers, but whats to stop the same phenomenon from happening as education opportunities in developing countries approach (and in some ways surpass) the US?

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TOP 35 Comments
  • Cultural barriers are enormous.
    Jan 23 2
    • Amazon
      gwol

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      gwol
      What do you mean?
      Jan 23
    • There's more to our jobs than writing code. Communication is paramount, and cultural barriers get in the way of that.

      Non software example is the making of Aliens (1986). The UK staff walked out on James Cameron because they couldn't get tea time or some shit.
      Jan 23
  • Affirm
    moose5

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    moose5
    Outsourcing didn't fail because of inability to communicate, it failed because code generated by offshore developers was 🗑 and then the US devs had to fix all the crap. While there is engineering talent everywhere it's concentrated a a select few cities throughout the world and wfh isn't changing that.
    Jan 23 5
    • Amazon
      htfsvjn

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      htfsvjn
      The banks aren’t innovative companies either. Financial services is probably the least innovative and risk adverse industries. You can easily outsource the stuff banks are doing, because they are dinosaurs when it comes to technological innovation.
      Jan 23
    • Affirm
      moose5

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      moose5
      Yup. Offshoring is being used for basic maintenance. Innovation largely doesn't happen off shore.
      Jan 23
  • Amazon
    aJhX43

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    aJhX43
    The high end salary segment of the US market is due to top skills, not location. To maximize productivity companies do/used to require people to work together in an office for collaboration. It's a simple question of correlation vs causality.

    Companies aren't paying top dollar salaries in HCOL areas because the location is fun and the soil is fertile. Instead top talent centralize to the cities where other top talent go, and companies pay competitive rates for that talent wherever they are.

    When you talk about Europe salaries being a fraction of top US: well there's a reason for that too - WLB. People in Europe refuse to work shitty WLB levels that people in the US tolerate. No right or wrong, just different cultural values. If a US based employee is working 80-100 hours per week with high expectations and pressure, they probably deliver productivity more than a European counterpart working 35 hours per week at a more relaxed European pressure level. I'm not saying those people couldn't do the same job - they may have that ability - I am just saying that as a matter of fact they are not doing the same job and generating the same productivity, so of course the pay is wildly different.
    Jan 23 4
  • because your US companies can’t hire all offshore developers.
    Jan 23 0
  • Shopify
    fravjsgc

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    fravjsgc
    It’s a mirage that there are enough talented people in less expensive countries.
    Jan 23 7
    • Meta
      🎈_🐖🐖🎈

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      🎈_🐖🐖🎈
      A lot has changed in 10 years too. Today salaries in India are quite competitive. Startup culture is booming. The gap between working in Bangalore vs working in US (bay area/seattle) has reduced. Give another 10 years and the migration story might stop for top talent.
      Jan 24
    • Shopify
      fravjsgc

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      fravjsgc
      I agree and I am also confused about this change, but then I see people going in Google and Amazon to spend a year or two just to move to US/Europe. Migration has really picked up in the past couple years.
      Jan 25