Will WFH hurt income of some software engineers?
The US has the hottest job market for software engineers in the world. The demand is so high yet the supply is so low that the income of software engineers in the US can be multiples of that of the engineers in other countries. Case in point, London has a pretty bustling IT sector, yet merely £200K is considered top salaries for an engineer. So, if WFH were truly popularized across regions, wouldn't the average package of engineers in the current IT hubs shrink? So, for those who advocate for WFH policies, you don't worry about intensified competition and therefore reduced income? I'm sure some of you are at the top of the game and therefore wouldn't worry about "competitions" because there would be none. But I'm talking about the averages with the assumption that there will be way more great engineers outside of the few IT hubs. I'd also assume that more supply of engineering talent does not necessarily mean larger or faster-growing market.
Work from home and hiring someone overseas are different things. A company may allow WFH but still prefer people with legal right to work, no language or cultural barriers, no timezone hassles, no tax and accounting complications.
The US programmer job market went through this in the ‘80s with offshoring, it didn’t make much of a dent in programmer salaries in the US.
I haven't seen too much of an effect on remote salaries. I only really see the difference for really high profile jobs or jobs in places like SF or Seattle where cost of living is insane so they have to comp you for that.
All the remote jobs I've seen pay the same as if they were in person. I've only ever seen a 5-10% bump in offer for non-remote... but that 5-10% is 100% worth it for some so they can live anywhere they want.
WFH doesn't democratize software engineering, because programming is so hard, very few people want to do it, and the reason for the exorbitant salaries is because people are paid to basically bang their heads against walls all day in frustration. Unless you are so competent that the act of coding feels smooth and isn't an adversary, but then everyone would be doing it, so?