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Comment by axtn | Hacker News Reader

They are a benefit... if you pay people above market! That allows you to attract top talent that otherwise would be locked in at Google etc.

The whole point of low salaries, for smart companies, is to be the one increasing them! Obviously that makes it a temporary advantage, as salaries start to increase... But all great advantages are temporary.

The people you are talking to, who like low salaries because they want to enjoy lower costs in perpetuity... that’s just mediocre thinking by mediocre companies.

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Good luck getting the top talent that has moved to the US, UK or Switzerland years ago.

There’s top talent graduating all the time though, you don’t necessarily need to go abroad and drag people back.

Exactly. France has extremely strong engineering schools, and almost no software industry. You wouldn’t believe the talent being wasted in banking IT desks and consulting conpanies... Not only can a well-funded startup pay them better, the work is 10x more interesting. And unlike Silicon Valley engineers, French employees won’t ditch you after a year. Once they’re on board, they tend to stick around (sometimes even too long for their own good...)

MIT used to be the dream, now it's Inria where all the magic seems to originate.

(I blame the switch from scheme to Python)

> French employees won’t ditch you after a year. Once they’re on board, they tend to stick around (sometimes even too long for their own good...)

You forgot to mention that you can‘t fire them at will either... It‘s such laws and excessive taxation that makes many european countries unattractive for startups.

That is just not true, it's quite easy to fire somebody in France, you just have to pay correctly for settlement.

How much is the correct amount for settlement?

An employee can be laid off if he agrees to it but that's not like firing because it needs an agreement. I am not sure if the OP is talking about that.

It's possible to fire people without justification and the company will be brought to court. There is a new law from Macron that caps the damages the employee can get to pretty much nothing when he only has a few years of tenure or less. You could provision for a few months of salary.

I can confirm that you can fire people in France at a reasonable cost if you know what you’re doing and are focused on paying good money for great people. If you’re looking to build a large-scale sweatshop of low-skill workers with low pay and high turnover... then sure, France is not the place to do that. But if you’re a typical tech company not afraid to pay above market for top talent... cost of severance will not be an issue.

(I’ve hired and run large engineering offices in France and in the US).

That. Definitely that. There is zero software industry in France. The best talents are incredibly easy to hire and retain because they have nowhere else to go.

There's always people that want to move back home to be closer to family or their culture but are put off by the lower salaries.

I couldn't agree more!

Low salaries also mean it is hard for normal people(ie people not from rich or well connected families) to save up enough money to self-fund a startup.

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