Ask HN: How much are remote software developers paid?

26 points by whoishiring ↗ HN
I imagine working remotely is a very competitive because there are proportionally fewer jobs than jobseekers and many jobseekers live in low cost areas (Montevideo and Manila vs Manhattan for example).

How have supply and demand equilibrated?

Remote developers, what are you paid? Managers, what do you pay remote software developers?

28 comments

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I make python web crawlers and extract desired data from yellow pages web sites for $50. My client is very happy. I am from Nepal.
Well, I guess that solves that. Next post.
Is that $50 dollars per hour?
$50 is almost what the average person in Nepal earns in a month, so that seems unlikely.
$50 an hour is low by any other standard, expect perhaps freelancer.com
I've been working in Kathmandu since last 10 years. On average full time programmers here earn 10 times more than that. And for freelancers the average income goes above $2k/month. Parent charging $50 is probably a cost for small "task" of few hours.
Wow, are you available for other jobs?
I think you'll find that remote developers' salaries vary as much as any other worker. I work remotely for a company based in NYC. My employer based their initial offer on the average salary for software developers in the city that I lived in at the time. I countered for much higher ($135k) and got it. Now I live in San Diego, which has one of the highest costs of living, but I feel the tradeoff is worth it.

This company also hires lots of developers from around the world, in places with much lower cost of living and I suspect their salaries balance out, so to speak, with mine and the local NYC employees.

I don't mean this to sound snarky but remote developers are paid whatever they can negotiate.

If a company wants remote workers for "off shoring reasons", then pay will be low. If they want remote workers that are perfect for their needs, they'll pay what they think is fair and within their budget.

I was gonna say something similar but you said it best. Moving to a lower cost city is actually a competitive advantage because the scope of the project determines its pricing.
I work remotely and get paid excactly like I was when I did not work remotely
That doesn´t mean much without the context of where you would not be working remotely from.
The same as locals: you dont get anything you dont ask for.
(comment deleted)
Nah, the remote worker are paid too less then actual on-site work.

PS: I'm remote worker.

I've never worked remote but interviewed for a bunch. I had some places come out and say since you work remote we will pay you less then is average for your area since you don't have to commute and some offer the going rate.
It is called "subsistence coding".
$65k / year, working four days a week. I do not think my employer is aware of or interested in where I live.
No, supply and demand have not balanced out.

From what I've heard here in South America, a common salary goes from 25 - 50 US$/hr for experienced remote freelance developers. That works out to a pretty decent salary that's above local market rates.

The keys are: - good English - experienced developers - above local market rates (but usually below market rates where the client lives)

I expect this market to continue to evolve and expand, there's really no reason for it not to.

20-25$/hr working as PHP developer. Started with NodeJs few months ago and charge 30USD/hr

I am form India. Most of my clients are via oDesk.

I was going to say, that’s quite low (for me here in Europe), but then I read the ODesk part.
Yes, I need to get out of oDesk.
But $30/hr is really a good pay considering living in India yes? Ofcourse aiming high is definitely a goal. If Odesk helped you to get clients with those rates I really appreciate it. Keep it up.
I get paid the same as when I was in SFBA. I don't understand why people think they should be paid less for working remotely.
I make Content Management Systems for small medium businesses with optional eCommerce integration mostly LAMP stack, 3 person team(PHP & Android dev, a Designer), earning $60/hr. Location: Kathmandu. Have been bootstrapping my company with these occasional contract works for last 3 years.
I charge $60-80/hr and live in upstate NY, while most of my clients are in TX.
I recently asked for $30/hr.

I'm based in Italy.

I plan to somewhat raise the rate if the work is enough to allow me to open a "partita IVA".

I charge £15/hr to £20/hr. Working as PHP / JQuery / Bootstrap / HTML5 / API etc., I source work from PPH mostly (90%)

I live in India & Happy to be here considering the cost of living.