ernstvn

Just to be clear: the calculator takes Level, Experience, and Location into account. If the candidate and recruiter arrive at different numbers while typing into the calculator, then there is apparently miscommunication about one or more of those factors. But being asked to agree to something that is lower than what comes out of the calculator is just not something we do at GitLab. If it came across that way then something got lost in the communication.

Matt, since I deal with the comp calculator every now and then, if you'd like to provide more specifics of your situation, can you please email me on ernst@gitlab.com ?

amyjess, thanks for pointing out the CBSA; I'll admit I had not seen it before. When we set out to develop the calculator we wanted it to work globally, and focused on that. This will be a helpful way to improve it specifically in the US, so I'm adding it to https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/organization/issues/24

Thanks!

You are right that we used compensation from before we had the systematic formula. However, we then repeated the exercise (of finding linear correlations with various COL indices) when we had a larger cohort but before the formula had been implemented systematically, and it still pointed to the use of the Rent Index instead of another index.

You're also right that we need the calculator to work worldwide, and I suspect that that may be part of the reason here that the calculator works well on that scale and then not always as well as it should on more local scales. We'll continue to explore how to get better on both scales; the challenge is always that we want to keep things as simple as possible also.

I've made two issues based on your comment here and the one where you shared specific data for Sacramento (thanks for that!):

- https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/organization/issues/23 to cross check BLS data with the calculator.

- https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/organization/issues/24 to address the global vs local question.

Thanks; this is useful. I've made an issue ( https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/organization/issues/23 ) to make sure we cross check BLS data with the calculator.

Would love to get more input from you to make sure the calculator reaches its goal of providing fair market compensation in your location. Can you please send me an email to let me know your city and whatever further data you are willing to share? ernst@gitlab.com

It's definitely not our intent to pay below market in any location. If our calculator shows a large negative adjustment from your current compensation, please send me an email (ernst@gitlab.com) so I can review the data. We don't promise to make overnight changes to the calculator, since changes need to be robust and simple (i.e. no cherry picking city by city numbers), but we do gather data and make edits as we learn.

Can you please email me at ernst@gitlab.com to let me know what city and role you're looking at?

hamishtaplin; unfortunately coverage is not fully global yet; I think we have about 372 cities in there at the moment. This draws from Numbeo.com's data set on rent indices. But if your city is not listed, our default solution is the following "If you live outside a metro region we base our offer upon the lowest rent index number of any metro region in your country (or state, in the case of the USA), if your country is listed"

We are serious about being fair :-)

Regarding using the rent index; that was a data-driven decision as described on https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/global-c... but as I mentioned, it is a work-in-progress just like everything else at GitLab always is, and I'm open to alternatives / ideas.

If you relocate, then yes, that affects compensation. This is described in more detail on https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/#relocat...

viraptor, please send an email to Sasha (email above), she can track down what went wrong in your case and make sure you receive the feedback.

We're working on a global compensation framework, to be open and fair about compensation for everyone that works at GitLab. It's described in more detail on https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/global-c... . The local rent index (+ a fixed 0.25), NYC benchmark, level, and experience all play in to the compensation. Having the calculator has allowed us to make offers to people in lots of new locations. I'm always looking for ways to keep it robust (i.e. as simple as possible) while being fair as well. If you have specific ideas on how to improve it, please send me an email on ernst@gitlab.com

REMOTE ONLY - GitLab We're hiring production engineers, developers, UX designers, and more, see https://about.gitlab.com/jobs/ We're a remote only company so everyone can contribute. GitLab is an open-source Ruby on Rails project with over 1000 contributors.

REMOTE ONLY GitLab

We're hiring production engineers, developers, UX designers , and more. https://about.gitlab.com/jobs/ We're a remote only company so everyone is on an equal level. GitLab is a Ruby on Rails project with over 1000 contributors.