“But if I had instead lived in the Bay Area, I would’ve earned at least twice that amount, possibly even more.”
Peterse left GitLab earning about €120,000 a year. GitLab is all remote, with no office to staff, and still pays by postcode. He calls that discrimination, and he’s right. Dutch tax law also trapped him: exercising options meant 52% income tax on paper gains he couldn’t sell, so he had to wait for the IPO to quit. Remote work saves the company the office and then saves it the salary too.