Hey folks! I’ve been interviewing for a US-based SEO Lead role (in-house) During the interview regarding the compensation, I’ve been told by HR that compensation would be localised to where I am based, India in my case. I fail to understand why I should be compensated lesser due to where I am based. I was told this is because the cost of living is different. Is looking for fair pay where my compensation matches what US folks would be paid with a similar skill set as me unrealistic & too big of an ask? My question to folks who are working in in-house US roles 1. Is the salary that you get in hand deducted with taxes from the US? 2. If you were to advise someone in my case, to what % of deviation should I factor in while I am negotiating compared to US rates? 3. I see stuff like Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance & 401K plans included in the job role. Since I am not going to be eligible for most of these things will be able to negotiate a higher salary? 4. Would I be working as a contractor on paper & still continuing with 44ADA & other things as I have? Does anything change here? 5. Another company that I am also interviewing with tried lowballing it by asking me what my current salary is. Since I knew in US nobody discloses their salaries while looking for jobs I refrained from disclosing this. Are any other such things that I should be aware of? 6. I was also thinking of letting them know, that I have plans of moving to Canada or UAE in the near term so I’d need something that matches the cost of living. Would this be a good point to bring in? For folks who have been here and done that, any 2 cents on how did you go about this? I’d love to connect with people & come up with a solution where I am not on the losing end of the deal.

1. Not for me, Depends on your contract. 2. Depends on company policy, not much we can do unless we have very good leverage. 3. Ideally, yes. Practically, don't think so. 4. Depends on your contract 5. Nice move.

@mammoth-kilobyte-43714 some companies are just looking to hire people from companies where they can pay local salaries. There is no beating around the bush there. And nothing much you can do. I have seen this many times. They will specifically hire from India / SEA countries because salaries will be 30-50% of what they would pay in the US. You need to look for companies that are paying globally competitive salaries. 1. US will never deduct your taxes. Because you are a tax resident of India. You will submit a W8-BEN. 2. Can't do much there. It depends on the company. 3. Probably. They might offer to cover the cost of similar in India. 4. Contractor - yes. Nothing changes for you. You can't be an employee sitting in India working for a US company "on paper" 5. It depends on where you are on the job hunt. Earlier, I would have said to staunchly oppose such a move - but if someone is desperately looking for a gig and doing this might cause you to lose the gig, then you'd have to play by their rules. YMMV.

Especially with the wave of layoffs, the negotiation power of candidates are significantly down. 😞

@glamorous-mouse-696 Also, this company got funded Series A last month, so they are definitely not in a cash crunch situation @loud-glass-33663 Since I am interviewing for 2 companies here, I am guessing this is the only leverage I have to negotiate. Both are interested in knowing what the other company is offering.In India, people ask for an Offer Letter, would I need to showcase something similar to them? Does this also hold true for US? Trying to wrap my head to see if I can do some jugaad to get a fair pay

Unless they have a very idealist CEO or something, most companies will try to reduce their cash burn rate. Doesn't really matter if they have cash now or not. Sadly, the current economy gives more power to the company to try to push the costs down. Yes, you can negotiate based on competitors offer and whether they ask for proof somewhat depends on the hiring manager. The moving plans is something I'm also interested to know what others think. The response could go 2 ways, they reject it, or say they're open to negotiation once you move (as the contracts and all will need to be changed anyway).

1. I would not mention the move until I am super certain that is happening. It will cause more issues than solve stuff for you. 2. My idea of negotiating is to leave with a specific value. In my own hiring, it would rub me the wrong way if a candidate is trying to pit me against another company. So I don't do that. I just come up with a figure I will be happy with and if they can match it, great. If not, wasn't mean to work. 🤷

I am the only non-US person at my company. Junior dev under me is paid more than me because she lives in Florida. My frontend counterpart is paid 2x than me because he lives in LA. It all depends on what the leadership thinks like. I am okay with that and staying because I have a fantastic CTO, who is more than just mentor to me and he allows me to have the work life balance which I think I can never have at any other place. I learnt it from @flat-morning-91037 that getting San Francisco salary while staying in India is a privilege, and I agree with that.

@strong-evening-37474 we need to make this privilege a norm. 🙂 All this while, I thought getting a remote job in a good company staying in India is tough, it looks like that was just a very small problem that one needs to deal with 😅

Location-based pay has been an industry debate for as long as I can remember (doing remote for past 6 years), with no right answer. I think in an ideal world, I'd take a median between universal pay & location based pay. But given the current economic climate, even that may be a tough ask. Some remote companies are now just hiring in countries with lower location factors due to budget constraints. So who knows how bad it'll get from here, I'd say if you're getting an offer that's 50% more than what you're getting while switching within India itself, then that's a good number currently. Good thing is that most remote companies outside of India don't care about your previous salary, so you still have an upper hand there.

@flat-morning-91037 exactly what I needed to hear! This is helpful. Thanks 🙂

I work in the US. All compensation here is location based. $200k/year in California is equivalent to $120k in Texas as California has higher rent & gas. Remote based jobs also have a different compensation range. 1. yes it’s deducted 2. I wouldn’t know but 23lakh/annum equates to $100k in the US 3. You might not get 401k, but might be eligible for insurance. You can negotiate for stock options 4. No idea 5. Some companies ask for current salaries, usually lie and highball them 6. I don’t think it matters to them

Having stayed in the US earlier , my personal estimate to that cost of living is around 3-4x in US as compared to India. And this also corresponds to avg compensation of my batchmates in the US as compared to mine.