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TL;DR: My worth differs between my country and the company's country and I'm looking for the optimal worth I can ask for.

I'm preparing for a final interview for a new position and I have been informed that I might be asked to provide what compensation I have in mind instead of being presented with a number. My problem is that this is a remote position for an international company (and me working as a type of freelancer with a contract with them) and I have no knowledge of the salary ranges in these cases. There is an amount I have in mind which is based on local data for local companies but of course I'm looking to maximize the compensation and I don't want to lowball myself. On the other hand, I can't look at salary ranges based on the company's location since they are also looking to pay lower than their local average which is too high for them. Note that there are no benefits or other type of indirect compensation, the contract has a fixed yearly number and that's it.

How should I approach this? One idea is to counter with a

I'm looking for fair compensation based on my experience

but I need a backup plan in case I'm forced to disclose a specific number.

PentaKon
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    My worth differs between my country and the company's country, that's the problem. How do I find the optimal point... – PentaKon Nov 22 '20 at 13:17
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    I'm guessing that as usual this is software related, @Konstantine ? – Fattie Nov 22 '20 at 14:04
  • "My worth differs between my country and the company's country" (fortunately) that is one billion percent wrong. Your basic premise is (fortunately) totally incorrect. – Fattie Nov 22 '20 at 14:05
  • I wish you would just state (A) what country or at least region you currently happen to live in and (B) ditto for this company – Fattie Nov 22 '20 at 14:07
  • @Fattie, citation needed, seriously, that's a wild claim. – teego1967 Nov 22 '20 at 15:10
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    I fully agree with @gnat indication that this is a dupe, the same factors apply in applying remotely as on location, except that some matters are different (for example instead of transportation cost you have cost of extra electricity, higher speed internet, a room to work out of etc). – Aida Paul Nov 22 '20 at 15:14
  • @Fattie > while this is maybe maybe a bad choice of words from OP, I wonder how you can use such superlatives stating the contrary... – Laurent S. Nov 24 '20 at 13:48
  • In which measures does your "worth" differ from your own country to the one of the company? Is it a factor 10 or a factor 2 for example? – Laurent S. Nov 24 '20 at 14:29
  • Maybe between 3-5? Again it depends. For example, assuming the company is based in the U.S. do I compare with Utah salaries or New York salaries? – PentaKon Nov 24 '20 at 14:55
  • But @Konstantine . When I contract for startups in California, NY, or Idaho or indeed France or India or Eastern Europe ................... I charge exactly the same amount of money. And indeed, note that those startups make (or lose) exactly the same amount of money. – Fattie Nov 24 '20 at 14:58
  • Just BTW @Konstantine you may not be aware that Utah (SLC) is a massive, ultra-high energy software center. (Funnily enough, one of the most well-paid blokes I know does it for a startup there.) – Fattie Nov 24 '20 at 14:58
  • @LaurentS. , I've already put in an answer. Any answer on this company-focussed site which suggests "employees should make money" which gets downvoted, is inevitably correct, so you can be sure it is correct :) I think there is some confusion between contractors/freelancers and "programming sweat shops". The contractors/freelancer market is simply international. – Fattie Nov 24 '20 at 15:01
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    Thanks for all your wisdom (and for free). Being a contractor myself I couldn't agree less with your answer though. Already within the small country I'm in there are noticeable differences depending on where the company is located. There are plenty of answer on here encouraging people to get more money so I don't think this is why you get downvoted, but maybe rather presenting things as true with a massive usage of superlatives but no other evidence to support your speech can explain that? – Laurent S. Nov 24 '20 at 15:31

2 Answers2

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If you are indeed sure that you are being considered for the position because the company wants to economize on its salaries by having some of its work outsourced to remote workers in other/cheaper countries, you could do the following.

There are various lists available with comparative cost-of-living indexes of various countries. For example https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp So, if for example the company is based in Switzerland, you live in Malta and the salary in Switzerland for the function is 5000 euro a month, then you would calculate your asking salary as follows: (5000 / 125.69) * 69.26 = 2755 euro.

I am sure all such lists don't give exactly the same number, so pick one which is most to your advantage. When you live in an expensive (capital) city you could look for lists which list cost-of-living per city.

Kat
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thieupepijn
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I have nothing but good news for you,

My problem is that this is a remote position for an international company

This is the common and normal situation. All high-end development is "remote" and/or "internationalized", and always has been.

If you think you somehow make or pay less "because one party is in area X" - the good news is you are totally mistaken.

Thus, to repeat, you seem to have a drastic misconception. The good news: you do not consider at all irrelevant issues such as "what continent your current house happens to be on at the moment".

Hooray!

(A thought experiment - what would happen if you happened to move continents during the contract? Do you think you'd have to "tell them that and adjust your payments" - ?! Indeed, other than time zone, why would you even mention to them where you live?)

they are looking to pay lower than their local average which is too high for them

This sounds completely bizarre.

I'd walk away and forget about it.

(1) All programmers are very expensive (2) all software development burns incredible amounts of money (3) in the history of the universe, nobody has ever gotten any software project (from a little web site, to research projects) done on the cheap.

If they're trying to get "someone cheap" it just doesn't parse.

(In incredibly rare circumstances you can find a future-star new-programmer (who will very soon be as expensive as any other programmer) and get them cheap for a year. Other than that, why would anyone work cheap?)

On the other hand ...

My understand is there are "two different" figures you think should be the amount for the contract. (I am confused about which is which, as the question is not specific.)

The answer is:

Pick the higher of those two figures. Add 50%. Away you go.

To repeat:

In the actual question at hand which we are answering:

The country where you happen to live currently, is totally unrelated to anything. (Indeed, the same applies to where (if anywhere) the company happens to have offices.)

The they need something, "X", done. There's a market rate for "X". The market, "X", and anyone who can do "X", is completely uninterested in the location of the houses of the people involved..

Here's an actual recent example omitting names. About 8 weeks ago we had to hire for a company a top expert in a certain networking niche for a project. I dug up the best guy. (Sex anonymized here!) I told him $X. He said a higher rate, $Y. All I could really say was "OK". Money was sent around and work began. I actually didn't even know what country the guy was living in, until we were just talking socially once the project was underway.

How else can it be?

Fattie
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