Some companies might no have the internal legal frameworks to hire remote in the US or far less outside the US, as an anecdote a company I used to work for was fully remote but only hired remote on some specific states, this because of tax laws that would vary in each state would complicate their operations. This was a smallish company, less than 40 people.
So this is essentially protectionism. I mean if engineers outside the US are just as talented and productive, why should a company only use US engineers, especially if their marketplace is global.
Let’s say you have the same talent elsewhere, it’s likely a company will pay considerably less, and may also take advantage of other factors due to that person’s desperation - overwork, given less input/influence, less career growth/trajectory, more contract based, less full-time, less or no benefits, less laws, etc.
So the quality of life for the US developer will not only come down in terms of pay, but also for all those other reasons. The worst part about it is that the off shore workers won’t regain those improvements for awhile (as in, until their standards go up over time - higher pay, etc).
It’s a regression on more fronts than compensation, with the enemy not necessarily being developers (where ever they are), but more so the ruthless market mechanisms.
> Money isn't the only issue, of course. Language skills, culture, educational background, security clearance, tax laws, infosec, time zones, law enforcement, etc. are all also factors.
These might (probably?) have had nothing to do with the quality of the coders - A lot of it was due to cultural and language issues. Things like not realizing what the holiday schedule for a given region is, and 'suddenly' finding out you have a 2-4 week holiday in the middle of your production rollout...