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Comment by FirmwareBurner | Hacker News Reader

>The problem is that New Zealand employers are absolutely allergic to paying their staff; they are cruising on the idea that "New Zealand is a great place to live, it doesn't matter if you're paid less, the lifestyle benefits make up for it".

It's exactly the same in Austria (the one with schnitzel, not kangaroos). Employers will tell you, "you don't need more than 60k/year because the quality of life is so good, you know we keep winning most livable city in the world", to the point where I think the whole winning most livable city in the world is some paid BS advertising from Austria to sucker in foreigners willing to lowball themselves and fill in the so called "skill shortage", up until they move here and realize a house costs 1 million Euros, stuff is more expensive than in Germany while salaries are lower and then they fuck off.

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There are places in NZ (Nelson for example) that semi-formalize this as the 'sunshine dividend' making up the balance of payment compared to other towns or cities.

i.e suggesting because a place has nice weather that you should be paid less.

There is a strong correlation that I noticed in Europe as well between a place begin nice to live with nice weather which tend to have lower pay while depressing places with shit weather having higher pay.

Basically the nice cities with nice weather attract a lot of candidates meaning employers don't need to pay so much, while employers in cloudy, windy, rainy and depressing cities need to pay good because otherwise there's no reason to move there. It's just supply and demand.

I could get a nice pay bump by moving to Netherlands or the UK, but I really can't stomach the weather in that part of Europe, as someone who like going outside for walks in the sun. Sometimes there's more to life than counting more money, and life is too short to spend it living somewhere where you don't like just to accumulate money.

> I could get a nice pay bump by moving to Netherlands or the UK, but I really can't stomach the weather in that part of Europe, as someone who like going outside for walks in the sun. Sometimes there's more to life than counting more money

Weather is one of those intensely personal things. I am very much outside of the norm, especially when it comes to sun.

I've lived in Seattle my whole life and right now it is in the mid-80s and not a cloud in the sky; the whole week is predicted to be like this. The people I know have filtered, as they do every year, into two groups. One group is posting on social media about how they're out to "enjoy the sun" and "such marvelous weather". The other, like me, is sitting inside waiting for the grey to return. (Anecdotally to my friend group, people who move here tend to be in the first group; people who were born around here in the second.)

Which is to say, I would happily take a pay cut to get away from the sun so I suppose I'm glad the "gloomier" places tend to pay more.

>Weather is one of those intensely personal things [..] I've lived in Seattle my whole life

Of course it is, and if you grew up in a gloomy place your whole life you're used to it, but if you grew up in nice weather area it's tough to move somewhere depressing, and even people from depressing places want to live in nice weather places.

There's the scientific correlation between sun exposure, or at least seeing the sun with your eyes, not just bathing in it, and serotonin levels. Also people form northern gloomy places (at least in Europe) have higher suicide rates and consumption of antidepressants than the people living in the south despite the inverse correlation in wages.

So yeah, it seem like the sun and nice weather is better for your mental health than bigger wages.

> "you don't need more than 60k/year because the quality of life is so good, you know we keep winning most livable city in the world"

It would be amusing to see a list of "most livable city in the world". Vienna, Sydney, Auckland... they probably all win from slightly different orgs awarding.

I love those 'happiest people in the world' where they somehow also have the highest suicide rates.

Well, if all the unhappy people kill themselves then only the happy people remain, meaning your country is now the happiest. Does my logic scan to you?

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