Or a remote worker from the Midwest. $270k for someone in Seattle is the same buying power as $144k in Omaha, NE.
Companies don't look at buying power when determining compensation. If you live in some hypothetical location where milk costs $1000/galloon, a company isn't going to pay you $100,000,000/year; that would make no sense at all. Dublin, Ireland is more expensive a place to live than is Omaha, NE, but tech workers in Dublin get paid maybe $60K/year.
Last year Washington state passed the largest tax increase in its history, despite the new governor saying before his election that he wouldn't do so.
Washington state residents also get to pay extra for the "carbon tax" that does nothing to improve the environment. Gas prices are just behind those of California and help increase the price of anything that has to be delivered by truck.
But it still isn't enough. Under consideration this year is a first-ever income tax on "high earners" that over time will be extended to all citizens--despite the fact income taxes currently are not permitted under the state's constitution.
The Trump tariffs are a convenient cover for all the extra expenses the Democrat controlled legislature is inflicting on businesses and citizens of the state.
Companies don't look at buying power when determining compensation.
Spoken like a clueless drone.
What do you mean? I already disproved your argument with facts.
Companies pay what is market rate. If a company needs a person with a particular skil, if such a person demands $800K and if the company is very willing to pay that much, they will pay $800K whether the person lives in NYC or Omaha. If the company is not willing to pay more than $190K for that skill, it doesn't matter if a candidate lives in NYC and claims that $330K is required given the cost of living in his location. Companies don't exist to prop up prices in cities.
What do you mean? I already disproved your argument with facts.
Companies pay what is market rate. If a company needs a person with a particular skil, if such a person demands $800K and if the company is very willing to pay that much, they will pay $800K whether the person lives in NYC or Omaha. If the company is not willing to pay more than $190K for that skill, it doesn't matter if a candidate lives in NYC and claims that $330K is required given the cost of living in his location. Companies don't exist to prop up prices in cities.
No facts in your argument. You clearly no nothing about how companies operate. Try to stick to topics more in your wheelhouse, if you have one.
Last year Washington state passed the largest tax increase in its history, despite the new governor saying before his election that he wouldn't do so.
Washington state residents also get to pay extra for the "carbon tax" that does nothing to improve the environment. Gas prices are just behind those of California and help increase the price of anything that has to be delivered by truck.
But it still isn't enough. Under consideration this year is a first-ever income tax on "high earners" that over time will be extended to all citizens--despite the fact income taxes currently are not permitted under the state's constitution.
The Trump tariffs are a convenient cover for all the extra expenses the Democrat controlled legislature is inflicting on businesses and citizens of the state.
What do you mean? I already disproved your argument with facts.
Companies pay what is market rate. If a company needs a person with a particular skil, if such a person demands $800K and if the company is very willing to pay that much, they will pay $800K whether the person lives in NYC or Omaha. If the company is not willing to pay more than $190K for that skill, it doesn't matter if a candidate lives in NYC and claims that $330K is required given the cost of living in his location. Companies don't exist to prop up prices in cities.
There is no such thing as a national market rate for a job. Companies strive to pay the lowest salary they can to secure an employee with particular skills.
If a candidate wants $300K in NYC a company knows if they don't pay it they can get it from their competitor down the street. In Omaha the company can offer a candidate with the exact same qualifications $200K because there is nowhere else for them to go, unless they want to leave the area.
You need to take into account both the supply and demand side of the labor market.
There is no such thing as a national market rate for a job.
Right. Because job markets are local. The lion's share of white-collar jobs are not remote. The highly skilled people in a sector live where the high-paying companies are located (NYC for Finance, the Bay Area for Information Technology, etc.). Some high-paying companies are fully remote (AirBnB, Netflix) and they pay practically the same amount for the same role regardless of location.
One common reason why people believe companies pays less for the "same" role in a different location is because people don't understand that companies with a main location don't let the high-value work be done at satellite locations.
There is no such thing as a national market rate for a job.
Right. Because job markets are local. The lion's share of white-collar jobs are not remote. The highly skilled people in a sector live where the high-paying companies are located (NYC for Finance, the Bay Area for Information Technology, etc.). Some high-paying companies are fully remote (AirBnB, Netflix) and they pay practically the same amount for the same role regardless of location.
One common reason why people believe companies pays less for the "same" role in a different location is because people don't understand that companies with a main location don't let the high-value work be done at satellite locations.
It's really more about just agglomeration economies at work. Companies is the same sector form clusters with similar companies. Tech in Silicon Valley, finance and advertising agencies in NYC, entertainment companies in LA, bio-tech in the Bay Area and Boston-Cambridge, etc.
This results is cost savings with shared suppliers, labor pools, financing, etc. that outweighs the higher real estate costs.
The Seattle firms had to liquidate to cover the currency notes they bought at zero interest. Now the zero days are over as the BoJ wants interest paid. That's akin to reachining 18 and your parents demanding rent, food, and utilities cash each month. The Liquidity Crisis is the problem is no one has any idea how to solve.. NASDAQ/NYSE Valuations at 25 to 30 times what they are really worth on the gold standard or crude oil standard. Nvidia market val aint $4.0T on the USD standard it's reallly $200M on the crude oil standard. That realization involves securities, fiat currencies GBP, EUR, JPY, USD, CNY, etc. but not Custodial Commodities oil, silver, gold, and not BTC, ETH which are non-custodial public blockchains. It's like asking Cocaine Addicts to fix the Cocaine Addiction Crisis. I haven't a clue either how this will turn out.
They are not switching to Indians, they are switching to AI.
That’s behind most of it. Wonder how some of these folks feel after their remarks to laid off miners and other manual workers to “…learn to code.” If karma is real in some cases, then…
The Seattle firms had to liquidate to cover the currency notes they bought at zero interest. Now the zero days are over as the BoJ wants interest paid. That's akin to reachining 18 and your parents demanding rent, food, and utilities cash each month. The Liquidity Crisis is the problem is no one has any idea how to solve.. NASDAQ/NYSE Valuations at 25 to 30 times what they are really worth on the gold standard or crude oil standard. Nvidia market val aint $4.0T on the USD standard it's reallly $200M on the crude oil standard. That realization involves securities, fiat currencies GBP, EUR, JPY, USD, CNY, etc. but not Custodial Commodities oil, silver, gold, and not BTC, ETH which are non-custodial public blockchains. It's like asking Cocaine Addicts to fix the Cocaine Addiction Crisis. I haven't a clue either how this will turn out.
This poster understands. When the bills come due for all of this, and they will, the ‘stuff’ is going to hit the fan like it never has in our lifetimes.
The Seattle firms had to liquidate to cover the currency notes they bought at zero interest. Now the zero days are over as the BoJ wants interest paid. That's akin to reachining 18 and your parents demanding rent, food, and utilities cash each month. The Liquidity Crisis is the problem is no one has any idea how to solve.. NASDAQ/NYSE Valuations at 25 to 30 times what they are really worth on the gold standard or crude oil standard. Nvidia market val aint $4.0T on the USD standard it's reallly $200M on the crude oil standard. That realization involves securities, fiat currencies GBP, EUR, JPY, USD, CNY, etc. but not Custodial Commodities oil, silver, gold, and not BTC, ETH which are non-custodial public blockchains. It's like asking Cocaine Addicts to fix the Cocaine Addiction Crisis. I haven't a clue either how this will turn out.
Fed rate has been above 3% for almost three years. The run up in valuations of tech/AI firms has taken place within the last two years and accelerated after Trump passed his tax giveaways to the ultra wealthy and corporations. During that period, the Fed rate was between 4-5%. Today, interest rates have been cut by 1.75% from their high of 5.5%. Yet, tech stocks are taking a beating even as debt is getting cheaper. Tin foil hatting the markets on conspiracies about fiat currency doesn't work when the numbers are moving in exactly the opposite direction.
BTC and ETH should be surging if there was really something to the fiat currency tin foil hat theories. ETH has halved since its 2025 high. BTC has dropped 20% this past month and is $50k off its high of $124k.
What is really happening is that the movement of wealth into the hands of a small number of large fund managers like Blackrock, Vanguard, the big (and highly consolidated) banks, various other hedge funds and Middle East sovereign wealth funds along with the tech billionaires has created markets that are one part FOMO and another part reckless greed. When you put that much wealth in the hands of such a small number of people, you get everyone chasing the next Amazon or Microsoft and valuations run way ahead of rational analysis of actual performance. Eventually, you get to a point where everyone is so deep into it that the exponential growth suddenly flattens and no one can explain why anyone should keep dumping money into the companies. And now it is time for the bubble to burst.
Or a remote worker from the Midwest. $270k for someone in Seattle is the same buying power as $144k in Omaha, NE.
Companies don't look at buying power when determining compensation. If you live in some hypothetical location where milk costs $1000/galloon, a company isn't going to pay you $100,000,000/year; that would make no sense at all. Dublin, Ireland is more expensive a place to live than is Omaha, NE, but tech workers in Dublin get paid maybe $60K/year.
Actually, they do consider local cost of living. I worked for a global IT company that had different pay scales for the same jobs depending on the market.
Companies don't look at buying power when determining compensation. If you live in some hypothetical location where milk costs $1000/galloon, a company isn't going to pay you $100,000,000/year; that would make no sense at all. Dublin, Ireland is more expensive a place to live than is Omaha, NE, but tech workers in Dublin get paid maybe $60K/year.
Actually, they do consider local cost of living. I worked for a global IT company that had different pay scales for the same jobs depending on the market.
When the executives at GM in the 1990s were in the board room deciding to offshore jobs away from Flint, MI, did they say "We need to move manufacturing to some place with a lower cost of living"? No! They said they need to move somewhere with lower wages. Companies care what the cost of living is in an area; they care what the cost of labor is.