I do believe AIM is lower than the EA average, and I think my personal attitude does affect this, though I would guess it accounts for less than 50% of the reason.
I get the sense that your and/or AIM’s views on pay localization explain a fair amount of the variance.[1] I’m not sure if that is counting in the less-than-50% or not.
For example, the median US full-time worker salary in 2022 was about twice the figure you linked for the UK in that year. I get the sense that many other orgs have chosen to pay at US rates (even Bay rates) as a baseline, with a desire to avoid huge US/non-US disparities minimizing the degree of downward adjustment applied to other locations. But it seems that could explain a good bit of the variance.
I am attempting to use a more favorable characterization than “cost-of-living adjustments” because untangling cost of similar lifestyles vs. differences in quality of lifestyle across areas can be challenging.
I do think localization has some effect but not a huge one. A quick Google search gave me a sum of $60,000 or £47,000 for the US in 2022 (if you only include full-time workers), so it’s a bit higher, but not enough to radically change the picture. My soft sense is that US vs. UK EA organizations would not have large pay differences. Also, I do not think AIM historically has had fewer US employees than other organizations that are based in the UK.
I get the sense that your and/or AIM’s views on pay localization explain a fair amount of the variance.[1] I’m not sure if that is counting in the less-than-50% or not.
For example, the median US full-time worker salary in 2022 was about twice the figure you linked for the UK in that year. I get the sense that many other orgs have chosen to pay at US rates (even Bay rates) as a baseline, with a desire to avoid huge US/non-US disparities minimizing the degree of downward adjustment applied to other locations. But it seems that could explain a good bit of the variance.
I am attempting to use a more favorable characterization than “cost-of-living adjustments” because untangling cost of similar lifestyles vs. differences in quality of lifestyle across areas can be challenging.
I do think localization has some effect but not a huge one. A quick Google search gave me a sum of $60,000 or £47,000 for the US in 2022 (if you only include full-time workers), so it’s a bit higher, but not enough to radically change the picture. My soft sense is that US vs. UK EA organizations would not have large pay differences. Also, I do not think AIM historically has had fewer US employees than other organizations that are based in the UK.