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One of the many concerns this week was the low pay of staff. Being a game developer is not the highest paying job out there. There are also a limited number of these jobs. This can be compounded by many companies be based in expensive areas to live. Paizo is in Seattle.
As COVID 19 hit many companies went to virtual work. I wonder if Paizo could not use that with the majority of their staff. With Microsoft Teams or Zooms files can be shared and edited by groups. Is their a need for staff to be in the office or even live in the Seattle Area. Certain higher level staff and warehouse maybe. But customer service, editing, design, and development could be done virtually.
What this does is allow staff to be in different parts of the country and have their salary go farther. 60, 0000 in New Mexico may go allot farther than Seattle. It could be a good salary in New Mexico, but near the poverty level in Seattle.
It also saves staff gas on driving to and from work.
Staff could work from home and customize their work environment.
It could possibly could cut down on child or day cost staff may
have.
What it does for Paizo is potentially expand pool of applicants due to not being required to live in Seattle.
Help retain staff that do move due to family getting different jobs.
Lower cost of building maintenance and upkeep. Could move the smaller amount of staff to different building.
Warehouse would remain the same.
Would need an IT person to coordinate IT services for people not at the main office and set up IT contracts for computer trouble shooting and getting staff technology they need.
HR to set up direct deposit. Beyond that full time HR could look at Benefits like insurance and 401k things
It is just food for thought. It is benefit for staff with changing the structure some. Paizo staff or working from home now.
This is a discussion the world over, including in many major companies, and there are implications from everything.
Either an eventual move into more affordable international locations, cross border tax challenges (in the US potentially also differences in local laws….. ), connectivity within the company, etc.
Now those are all not insurmountable (I had an employee move from UK to Sweden while staying in the same function), but it is not particularly easy for a small company. Also from experience it is not uncommon to adjust salary to local benchmarks (we would not pay a person living in Greece vs UK the same for the same job as cost of living difference would mean a modest-good salary in the UK would make you extremely well paid in Greece).
Still a very simple solution would be to allow work from home 4 days a week, and maybe in office once a week. That doesn’t get you into very cheap areas, but does at least allow cheaper areas in the state (or if small state a neighboring state).
What it does do is make the money that the staff does get go farther. Sadly the Rpg part of the industry is not known for its high pay and benefits. This could maybe have what they do it go a little farther.
They could maybe meet few times year when required. There are many businesses state side considering the same thing as far as working from home.
Yeah but the same bussiness will also hire people for less given the reduced cost of living in those other locations. Without any relevant minimum wage, adequate (country wide) labour laws etc, it won’t make a difference in the long run.
There is a federal minimum wage law. They could look at each state or country and base the salary on that. I would be surprised if they did that based on research it would take. If they make the salary to far below industry that would be a problem. An HR staff would be important for that researching the salary for the various staff. There has also been an established salary for all the positions since it is not a new company.
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As I understand it Paizo does not hire anyone for in-office or remote work who does not live in Washington State at all due to how complicated actually doing so is.
I believe this relates to paperwork filing headaches the state makes for companies that do this. A decent article that goes over this in a pretty shallow but easy-to-digest format can be found here. Washington state in particular seems to also have a rather more complex set of requirements for employee/employer registration for tax liability, workers comp, and a number of other factors than some other US states.
I don't expect this to change unless some legislation comes our way to change how this works and alleviates the financial, paperwork, filing, and registration processes that are involved with this.
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Just my 2 cents. Currently, I am working for a Interpretation company that outsources Interpretation services. Due to purchasing power disparities I can make a comfortable living despite making slightly than a third of the US minmum wage. I understand that paying a non-resident directly for a service has a 30% tax from the US, local taxes would be on the contractor. So that's another point of consideration.
Rellocating to a cheaper state might prove costly in the short-term, but save money on the log run. They may even throw a rellocatin bonus for the emloyees willing to do the transition. However, evaluating this would requiere comparing multiple shipping schemes, tax laws, labor laws, existing contracts, etc. Certainly more than what can be done with incomplete information from this forums. And it all can come down to the personal preferencences of the owners.
Humbly,
Yawar
Even so maybe living in different parts of Washington rather than Seattle could help some.
I think a full time HR or 2 could help with workers comp labor laws and taxes.
It would be a big change. Could be done in phases. Live state Washington first then maybe other states and finally countries.