Pay people for what they’re worth, not for where they live
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols , Computerworld |
Whatever happened to “Honest pay for honest work?” It’s a concept that, from CEOs to minimum-wage workers, we could once all agree on. Oh, we’d fight like cats and dogs about what it really meant, but we found common ground on the core idea.
Now it looks as if Google may be planning to base employee pay on where workers live as companies worldwide move to a work-from-home economy.
That’s nuts. If Joe's earning $80,000 in Mountain View, California, why can’t he make the same coin for the same work in Boise, Idaho? Yes, the cost of living is much less in Idaho—about 50% less, according to NerdWallet. Who cares? Has Joe’s work suddenly become less valuable? I don’t think so.
Google says it’s been doing this all along. “Our compensation packages have always been determined by location, and we always pay at the top of the local market based on where an employee works from.” But that was then; this is now.
