Local Salary - bad idea?

[coolkid03755]

Thank you, everyone! This has been really helpful and will help in guiding my decision.

Am expecting a final offer from Recruiting/HR this week. I will then know what my Argentine salary would be. I just wanted to get some insights from the group so that I won't freak out when I get the offer letter, and all the thoughts you've shared have definitely accomplished that!

 

[ElQueso]

He now earns about a salary comparable to the US for his field, computer programming. (about 12,000 ARG).

Well, I employ programmers in Buenos Aires and have employed programmers in the States. In fact, I do programming work myself, not just manage.

12K pesos is about $3K USD a month, or 36K a year.

I pay my senior guys about 4K USD a month here (16K pesos), and my juniors about 1.5K USD (around 6K pesos). These are not normal rates for Argentines that work for local companies. Even companies that charge US customers $35-50 USD an hour only pay their employees something like $15-20 USD an hour. Roughly $2500 - $3300 USD a month, or $10K - $13K pesos a month.

I am outsourcing projects from the States to here because I can find good programmers much cheaper here than I can in the States. I pay my programmers here better than at least 85% of the other people pay and still manage that. I couldn't do that if programmers rates here were comparable to those in the States.

I can't hire someone in the States that does good, solid enterprise-level work at a medium-level for less (or at least not much less) than $45/hour. Senior guys can be all over the board at anywhere from $60 - $90 an hour depending on the experience level. Of course, I'm familiar with Texas wages, which are not by a long shot anywhere near the highest in the US. The numbers could be a little lower in some places and a lot higher in other.

For $36K a year (12000 pesos = 3000 USD = 36K USD/year), I could hire a junior programmer for that, maybe, in the US. But I can hire a senior guy here for the same price. If your friend is making equal salary to his counterpart in the US, he's either very lucky because he's junior and being paid full US market value (unlikely) for a junior guy or he's a senior guy and is comparing his rate to a woefully underpaid senior guy in the States.

BTW - I have a friend in the States who is looking into finding a job programming in New York. He's about at my level (20 years development experience). He's looking in NY because they pay as high as 400K a year for a senior developer, particularly working for financial companies.

I don't mean to denigrate your friend's salary at all, but I wanted to make the point that there are very few jobs here that are paid a rate comparable to that of the US.

12K pesos a month is a very good salary for Argentina (although it's buying less and less as time goes on), but it doesn't buy a lot of luxuries. Life would be pretty good at that level, though.

Hell, my brother-in-law survives on 2000 pesos a month...

 

[Alilou]

When I said comparable... I meant proportional. Like the style of life we live here is comparable to the style of life we would live there. Sure he earns much less than his fellow US programmers but we live here so our expenses are less. And yes life is comfortable but we have a car that is older than I am and we live in a small 2 room apartment in Almagro (but we own it with no loans or anything).

And I know many many many Argentines live with much less but I think for an ex pat to be happy here, they need to have an income much higher than average if they plan to stay in the long term... We are somewhat unusual immigrants... going from richer countries to a poorer country. Additionally, I have rarely met an ex pat without a college degree and I have never met an ex pat that could remotely qualify as poor or lower class. I think ex pats have to realize that they are used to a certain way of life and that they can't necessarily survive happily on what an Argentine can survive on. Its kind of unfair and its too late for a lot of us that are already stuck here but if you are considering an offer, I think you need to take that in to consideration. I think with 12,000 ARS a month... we live a pretty much like a young middle class couple in the US. A single person could probably get away with about 6000 pesos a month. That being said, I know ex pats that earn much less and live here happily... but their situation seems pretty precarious to me.

 

[chico]

<first post>

great thread and it has inspired me register!
I'm in a similar situation. The company I work with is opening an office in BA and I'm lobbying for a transfer there from NYC. I visited last week and simply fell in love...

thank you to all for the great info here. I will continue searching to get up to speed!

 

[maggiengrace]

I´m a little aghast at some of these figures.

My boyfriend (argentine) is a lawyer and is being offered jobs at $1000 pesos per month. His sister is an architect and is being offered the same.

Hunh??

 

[citygirl]

$1500 pesos is minimum wage so not sure how they're offering him 1000 pesos.

This is beating a dead horse but typically expats will have higher cost than locals - due to the fact that they don't have guarantors, don't have a network of friends and family to rely on, and in the case of those that are later on in their careers, probably have/expect a certain lifestyle level.

 

[SaraSara]

I´m a little aghast at some of these figures.

My boyfriend (argentine) is a lawyer and is being offered jobs at $1000 pesos per month. His sister is an architect and is being offered the same.

Hunh??

I believe there here's something wrong about those figures. Such salaries would be low even in dollars of Euros.

 

[mini]

I´m a little aghast at some of these figures.

My boyfriend (argentine) is a lawyer and is being offered jobs at $1000 pesos per month. His sister is an architect and is being offered the same.

Hunh??

Now I'm aghast. I really want to say that's not possible. Maybe he meant US$1000???

 

[qwerty]

Expat's in general dont have the luxury of friends and family paying for things(my uncle owns a home in Mardel and I can stay there a week) so they must count with a higher salary then a local, who often lives at home.

Either way, did coolkid get an offer?

 

[mini]

Expat's in general dont have the luxury of friends and family paying for things(my uncle owns a home in Mardel and I can stay there a week) so they must count with a higher salary then a local, who often lives at home.

Either way, did coolkid get an offer?

Hey friend!
Don't know. I'm curious too.