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Comment by dangus | Hacker News Reader

But of course, the salary of employees is not purely based on the value they provide. It's also based on availability of labor.

COVID-19 doesn't really change the equation. Remote workers are already paid based on the prevailing wages in their locality.

Someone who was working in the bay area and now has been given free rein to go permanently remote is simply new to the remote work system, and they absolutely should expect a lower wage if they decide to live elsewhere.

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Supply and demand, of course. If you are in they bay area and already working remotely, how is that materially different if you move an hour away? Or 3 hours away? Or to the next state or two over? You were already in the “remote work” category. In fact, you were already working at that company at a given wage. I plain just don’t see the difference in the same remote worker in the next suburb over vs next city over vs next state over (granted similar working hours / timezones).

If you're in the Bay Area then you can take Bay Area jobs that are not remote.

Just to throw in a wrench, I live in a van and I'm only very rarely in the same place for more than a month.

My expenses don't really change depending on where I park.

How does it not? How much is a gallon of gas? How much does a dozen eggs cost? What's the cost of a Big Mac? How about a meal at a local restaurant? How much are you having to run your AC or a heater? It may not be the same comparison as India vs the US, which can differ by an order of magnitude, but with gas still more than $3.00 in San Francisco, California vs less than $1.80 in Jackson, Mississippi, I must be missing something on why your expenses don't change.

The only place I've seen fast food cost more is in mountain towns -- taco bell was about .50 more.

I have no A/C, run solar power and my heater is extremely efficient. Diesel usually sticks to 2.50ish everywhere right now, but California does get up to 4.00. so that's an extra expense of about $80 a month?

The cost of goods is so low, it barely registers. Housing tends to be the problem.

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