Current Events > Google rolls out pay cuts to work from home

(+) Yeah! (+)

WingsOfGood posted...

I think you made out like a bandit based on your work threads. Living in low cost areas.

Yeah, I definitely made good moves, fortunately. I hate changing jobs. Even if I don't like where I'm at, I get so worried about the place I would go to being worse than where I'm at. I said no to Amazon. Google wouldn't call me even though I applied like 8 times, LOL.

---

A 15% cut at Google can translate to $30,000 a year or more. This is not a small amount being cut and would definitely make me consider going to a competitor.

---

CableZL posted...

Google wouldn't call me even though I applied like 8 times, LOL.

You likely didn't go to a college on their whitelist or something suggested not a "cultural fit".

Broseph_Stalin posted...

but enough about them deciding to work from home,

God, you're something else. But it's ok for Google to do this because their employees are rich and you're the unprivileged savior of the common man. Good guy billionaire Google will pass on the money they save by doing this to the little guy.

---

Broseph_Stalin posted...

but enough about them deciding to work from home,

All of these people were sent home, regardless of whether they wanted to work from home. Some discovered that it works better for them over the course of a year or so. Then we all got the same information about Covid variants that made returning riskier. Nothing sudden or surprising about some people electing to stay home.

Furthermore, just like they've asserted control over the terms of pay, they could have decided that returning to the office is mandatory, regardless of what the workers wanted, and they could have done so at any time (provided the law allowed them) and can still do so.

At the end of the day, the employers have the power and you cheer that at every opportunity.

---

Questionmarktarius posted...

So... move the company HQ to nowhere Wyoming?

The irony of this post is that Wyoming isnt actually that inexpensive. Probably why alot of people dont live there to begin with. No urban settlements AND its pricey to own a home.

---

Broseph_Stalin posted...

The entire reason the salaries are so high to begin with is because of the cost of living in places like SF.

hold on... now we like "to each his need"?

topic is kinda derailing but let me summarize in 2 bullets points

1. google pay big money 200-300k not even Sr Level in the bay area
2. many place house cost little money, you buy 3 car garage house after 1 year of work

---

legendary_zell posted...

Nothing sudden or surprising about some people electing to stay home.

Nothing sudden or surprising about a company having location-based pay either yet here we are.

legendary_zell posted...

At the end of the day, the employers have the power and you cheer that at every opportunity.

imagine thinking google employees have no bargaining power

we aint talking about joe schmo making 40k, and greedy google now pay him 30k... we're talking about henry richman making 300k now making 260k (which btw is meaningless since stocks are a large portion of TC)

---

Meanwhile, I work from home and my pay is quite rewarding. I am about to get a 2 dollar raise myself.

The only time they want people in the office is for audits, which happen during the day, and I am an evening/night worker, so I don't have to ever worry about it. My job was remote prior to the pandemic.

Google is being dumb here. Literally easier for everyone, and they save money on office electricity and office tool use.

---

Broseph_Stalin posted...

Nothing sudden or surprising about a company having location-based pay either yet here we are.

imagine thinking google employees have no bargaining power

It is surprising when they a) didn't do that before b) it's not the norm in the industry c) people have been working without a paycut since March 2020 and presumably before d) the paycut occurs without negotiation or a law being passed (differing from the feds)

The comparison you're trying to make also doesn't make sense because one was an involuntary change forced by the pandemic and enforced by the companies themselves, upon the workers. The other is a voluntary change to maintain profits and offload costs onto employees. And other employers are making different decisions.

Also, note how I didn't say that google employees have no bargaining power? I said that at the end of the day, they still assert the power to do things like this without employee input. You can tell that by the fact that they're doing it.

---

Not sure why people's jimmies are rustled at the pay cut of employees still earning good pay on top of the capacity to work from home now.

On top of which wherever they decide to live would negate the cut also and then some.

---

WingsOfGood posted...

You likely didn't go to a college on their whitelist or something suggested not a "cultural fit".

Yeah, I dropped out of college after my 1st year. I figured that's a big part of it.

---

Pay cuts damn well better come with cuts to productivity.

---

#DontBeEvil

---

ScazarMeltex posted...

Pay cuts damn well better come with cuts to productivity.

It's almost as if the employees are going to spend an hour or two of each workday trying to find a different job!

legendary_zell posted...

It is surprising when they a) didn't do that before b) it's not the norm in the industry c) people have been working without a paycut since March 2020 and presumably before d) the paycut occurs without negotiation or a law being passed (differing from the feds)

The salary at google has always been dependent on where you work and based on the cost of living. If you work remotely in an area with a lower cost of living, that's why they're doing it. Because your location has changed, so you get paid based on that location.

Also google employees get ridiculous salary. And as somebody who has worked there, the work/life balance is great, I saw barely anybody ever stay late at all

---

IllegalAlien posted...

topic is kinda derailing but let me summarize in 2 bullets points

1. google pay big money 200-300k not even Sr Level in the bay area
2. many place house cost little money, you buy 3 car garage house after 1 year of work

Ah talking out your butt

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Software-Engineer-Salaries-E9079_D_KO7,24.htm

It is $120,000

With a possible big bonus of $30,000

But bonus is not a guarantee

IllegalAlien posted...

we aint talking about joe schmo making 40k, and greedy google now pay him 30k... we're talking about henry richman making 300k now making 260k (which btw is meaningless since stocks are a large portion of TC)

To quote the crazy guy from that movie: Its not about the money, its about sending a message.

---

IllegalAlien posted...

i wonder how many people in this thread realize how much google engineers make

If you are qualified to work at google you can make a pretty good salary in a lot of places.

---

WingsOfGood posted...

Ah talking out your butt

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Software-Engineer-Salaries-E9079_D_KO7,24.htm

It is $120,000

With a possible big bonus of $30,000

But bonus is not a guarantee

Bonus is basically guaranteed, you get a base of 15% each year, possibly more or less depending on performance. That number's also not including the 30k a year or so in stocks, and this is basically as a starting engineer with little experience. If you get promoted this all goes up even more, which you should in around 3 years on average.

---

Broseph_Stalin posted...

The entire reason the salaries are so high to begin with is because of the cost of living in places like SF.

no, their salaries are so high because those workers are hard to replace

cost of living variance is a factor, but not a dominating one.

---

Sackgurl posted...

no, their salaries are so high because those workers are hard to replace

The salary changes based on location. In NYC and SF you make more than at other offices.

And again, that 120k number listed was like immediate salary and not counting all the bonuses. After a couple years at the lowest level your total package will be around 200k and if you get promoted off of the starting level (which is expected for most everybody) you will be making much more even

And then of course theres things like the free gourmet food and 50% matching your 401k up to the maximum amount allowed by the IRS

---

HHH is the game posted...

The salary changes based on location. In NYC and SF you make more than at other offices.

And again, that 120k number listed was like immediate salary and not counting all the bonuses. After a couple years at the lowest level your total package will be around 200k and if you get promoted off of the starting level (which is expected for most everybody) you will be making much more even

And then of course theres things like the free gourmet food and 50% matching your 401k up to the maximum amount allowed by the IRS

i think you know that the lowest google salary greatly exceeds salaries for businesses whose employees are more easily replaced

the quoted post claimed the entire reason the salaries were so high was location driven, which we can agree was wrong

is 15% a reasonable estimate to the 'location premium' portion of a salary? I think so, it's roughly comparable to federal government cost of living variation

---

the better question is, does a remote employee cost google more, or less, relative to what they produce? my employer is taking advantage of this because we have too many work contracts and need more staff, but lack enough offices, so work from home full time (+access to local shared space for work that must be done on site) has been offered without any pay cut provided we commit to remaining in the general area of our main facility.

i've been working 60h/week every week for months now because we're so understaffed so i am welcoming this policy both from a "yes, i'd rather spend my day with my dogs as coworkers" and from a "dear god please hire someone so i can stop being both the lead and primary analyst for my programs" perspective.

---

Sackgurl posted...

i think you know that the lowest google salary greatly exceeds salaries for businesses whose employees are more easily replaced

the quoted post claimed the entire reason the salaries were so high was location driven, which we can agree was wrong

is 15% a reasonable estimate to the 'location premium' portion of a salary? I think so, it's roughly comparable to federal government cost of living variation

Yeah fair, the salaries are high because of that reason. But the cost of living definitely does factor in. And if you don't change your city then your pay won't be affected. But all the things in here about the work/life balance or how google treats their employees is just wrong. And the cost of living has always changed your salary so I dont see why its so horrible that they are doing the same if you move away from the expensive city your office is in, when your salary was only so high in the first place because you lived there.

Either way these people are making tons of money already

---

TC i thought you worked at big tech? u don't even know what RSUs are?

---

HHH is the game posted...

The salary changes based on location. In NYC and SF you make more than at other offices.

And again, that 120k number listed was like immediate salary and not counting all the bonuses. After a couple years at the lowest level your total package will be around 200k and if you get promoted off of the starting level (which is expected for most everybody) you will be making much more even

And then of course theres things like the free gourmet food and 50% matching your 401k up to the maximum amount allowed by the IRS

The fuck, that's insane. That's way better than my gov package

At least I don't have to learn code
---

HHH is the game posted...

Either way these people are making tons of money already

i don't so much think we need to have sympathy for them as consider the question "is this a good idea for google?"

if the adjusted salary isn't competitive with what peer companies will pay someone who works from home after considering benefits, the staff are not likely to stay. tech workers already leave positions more frequently than others

No_U_L7 posted...

The f***, that's insane. That's way better than my gov package

it's about the same as mine (we do a double match up to 4% and a free guaranteed 2.5, so 10.5 if you pay 4/10.5 if you max out), so not unheard of

---

Sackgurl posted...

the better question is, does a remote employee cost google more, or less, relative to what they produce? my employer is taking advantage of this because we have too many work contracts and need more staff, but lack enough offices, so work from home full time (+access to local shared space for work that must be done on site) has been offered without any pay cut provided we commit to remaining in the general area of our main facility.

i've been working 60h/week every week for months now because we're so understaffed so i am welcoming this policy both from a "yes, i'd rather spend my day with my dogs as coworkers" and from a "dear god please hire someone so i can stop being both the lead and primary analyst for my programs" perspective.

Exactly.

The whole point of location based compensations was places would pay more to encourage people in a lower cost place to want to make the life move to work there because they were a great asset to the company.
With wfh, no one, not even those who come in to work should get this and they can hire the best person who lives in some rural place and not worry the person have moving anxiety.
Wfh is a net benefit to the company not a negative and treating it as such will stifle innovation.

i think it's worth noting that 'local work from home' is super different from 'remote always'

i could not do my job 'remote always' but my partner could (and does, when we travel)

---

PatrickMahomes posted...

In other words, fuck covid right?

the 9-5 five days a week office space mentality is dead. it's not needed anymore. the only reason companies force people back is so they have justification to continue paying for their massive 30 year office space unbreakable leases.

essential on-site employees aside, there is zero reason to force return to office for a majority of white collar corporate jobs.

What about covid? They are pushing it hard. So they are dammed if they do or dammed if they don't. Such a evil company

---

Broseph_Stalin posted...

There's nothing wrong with this? The entire reason the salaries are so high to begin with is because of the cost of living in places like SF. The government literally has the same kind of pay scale for federal workers.

Just Broseph_Stalin over here, justifying the petty and spiteful decisions made by a multi-billion dollar corporation because people prefer the convenience of working from home.

You're definitely the type to brown-nose middle management for brownie points at the expense of your own self-respect and dignity.

---

WingsOfGood posted...

About what year did this occur?

About 4 years ago.

---

Are they picking up their employees internet bill tho?

---

While I can understand paying remote workers less, how exactly can they justify cuts these steep on paper? >_>

---

Zeus posted...

While I can understand paying remote workers less

Why, when the general consensus of several studies is that WFH is more productive?

Lordgold666 posted...

Are they picking up their employees internet bill tho?

Yes

---

Broseph_Stalin posted...

you support literal genocide

This is a lie. Why are you reluctant to acknowledge what I said about you? Its not like you try to hide it normally.

---

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

Just Broseph_Stalin over here, justifying the petty and spiteful decisions made by a multi-billion dollar corporation because people prefer the convenience of working from home.

You're definitely the type to brown-nose middle management for brownie points at the expense of your own self-respect and dignity.

There's nothing petty and spiteful about it. location has always determined pay. Now remote workers are at a different location. If you work remotely from the same city you were being paid to work in before, you will still get the same salary it sounds like. It sounds like this is for if you move away to an area with lower cost of living, in which case it doesn't make sense for them to be paying you the same amount they only paid you because you lived in a high cost of living area in the first place. Even now, if you work in NYC you will get paid more than if you work at a different office. Its always been that way.

They have been pretty good during the pandemic. Gave about 4-5 extra days off randomly throughout the year. Switching work to a 3-day at work, 2-day at home model permanently after this ends. Covering office supplies and internet for remote work.


---

If I were a Google employee I'd leave that shit and go somewhere else. Having Google on my resume would pretty much guarantee I'd have the pick of the litter.

---

Also anyone else find it funny that a person with the username Broseph Stalin is such a corporate bootlicker?

---

Isnt right but I also dont feel bad for people making 100-150K a year.

Locality is a thing. When you work for the government you get locality rathe that will increase or decrease pay based on standard of living in the area. If thats whats being done then its understandable.

Now if they just told people working from home regardless of location that theyre getting a pay cut then thats fucked. Id still take the work from home though.

---

"Google: We define evil"

---

HHH is the game posted...

There's nothing petty and spiteful about it. location has always determined pay.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Why, when the general consensus of several studies is that WFH is more productive?

mario2000 posted...

Also anyone else find it funny that a person with the username Broseph Stalin is such a corporate bootlicker?

Every once in a while someone comments on how much of a shame it is someone like him landed that username lol


---

HHH is the game posted...

There's nothing petty and spiteful about it. location has always determined pay. Now remote workers are at a different location. If you work remotely from the same city you were being paid to work in before, you will still get the same salary it sounds like. It sounds like this is for if you move away to an area with lower cost of living, in which case it doesn't make sense for them to be paying you the same amount they only paid you because you lived in a high cost of living area in the first place. Even now, if you work in NYC you will get paid more than if you work at a different office. Its always been that way.

They have been pretty good during the pandemic. Gave about 4-5 extra days off randomly throughout the year. Switching work to a 3-day at work, 2-day at home model permanently after this ends. Covering office supplies and internet for remote work.

Your pay gets cut, even if you move to another expensive area.

Google employees who move even farther away from the companys offices have been warned they could face even harsher pay cuts. A worker who left San Francisco for Lake Tahoe, another expensive area of California, would have their pay cut by a whopping 25 percent.

Not to mention that, as the article states, plenty of other tech companies (ones less profitable than Google) are paying WFH workers the same regardless of locale.

It's all a thinly-veiled attempt to force workers to work in or close to the corporate offices. That's it.

---

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

multi-billion dollar corporation

Multi-trillion*


---

Krojen posted...

Multi-trillion*

Whoops my b

---