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Ask HN: Why should a programmer be paid less for being outside America

5 points by kushan2020 ↗ HN
Assume that a programmer “X” from a third world country delivers the same output as a programmer “Y” from a developed country.

Why is it that the programmer X is paid 10 times less than programmer Y.

2 comments

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tedmiston
Tl;dr - Looking at the raw numbers outside of the context that supports them and the expenses that come with them is a bit misleading.

First, I think it's an oversimplification of the U.S. to overlook that salaries vary widely here as well. Someone in NYC or SF may make 2–3x that of a person in a similar role in a small city. And a very senior person on the coasts can make 5–10x what a junior dev would in a small city.

Usually when authors compare figures in articles they attach to the coastal numbers instead of giving more honest comparisons by city or state.

Another factor is cost of living. $150k in SF sounds like a lot of money but roughly half of that covers rent, transportation, taxes, etc. Healthcare is very expensive here too. In SF or NYC, food is expensive as well. In some countries, $15 covers enough food for the day or more, in SF that might cover lunch.

One more is that the demand for good experienced programmers in the U.S. outweighs the supply for various reasons. We have the biggest tech companies in the world, so Google for instance can afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to retain the best talent since they make roughly $1M in revenue per employee.

http://www.businessinsider.com/revenue-per-employee-at-apple...

[dead] PythonDeveloper
Good answer, but you forgot legal. One reason you would definitely choose an American programmer over one in another country is the ability to pull them into the legal system should they reuse or release your code , or do anything else inappropriate with it.

With just a simple 1 hour Court session an American programmer can be blocked from using Code or even blocked from programming if the Court decides that there is significant risk to the plaintiff. Taking someone in Hyderabad to court when you live in California is near impossible, and there's no way you're going to get them put in jail if they violate the court order.

In America, a 'work for hire' is owned by the customer and not the programmer and therefore the code can't be reused or recycled without explicit consent from the customer. That sentiment isn't the same in other countries.