“Location-Based Pay” – Who are we to complain?
Please, for the love of anything meaningful, read a book about negotiation before trying to sound this stuff out.If you accept the term "location based pay," you have basically handed your wallet to the "wallet inspector," and you are being hustled. It's just like "policy," or "pay scale," they are utter bullshit if you have something of value.  The media people who write articles about whether "location based pay, is it good?" are literally just 20-something bloggers with zero life experience trying to get published, and their editors and publishers have a stake in promoting the idea that your work should be cheaper.If you want to pay me based on location, I'm going to charge you based on location, because I know what kind of prima donnas people from the bay area  can be and I charge a risk premium for having to put up with their nonsense. If that sounds offensive, why should using their perception of my housing situation as leverage be legit?If you are looking at a role, you need a clear idea of the total comp you are looking for as a part of your own plan for your life. Comp isn't a reward for good behaviour unless you are a prisoner begging guards for privileges or an animal doing tricks for treats - it's earned from value. When an HR person tells you what they want to pay you, say, "that's interesting, thank you, here is the data I have on what this role looks like from sources x, y, z, and these are the criteria I am using to evaluate the total package value." Those X, Y, and Z sources and references are things I've written about here before.Please, please, please, if you write code, read a book on negotiation.