Programmer pay rates in Armenia, from intern to top

This kind of discussion can only help programmers.

A point I've raised elsewhere: why should geography figure into a pay rate. The work programmers do in Armenia isn't less valuable than work I do in the Bay Area. They should be paid closer to my rate. Even if the figures quoted in the article are US dollars it's still low for programming. Programmers who live in Armenia should demand more.

Note: obviously geography will have some indirect impact. Local shops in Armenia providing services for local businesses can likely only afford local rates, for example.

I think those numbers are impacted by outsourcing market a lot. As discussed here multiple times, when you work remotely for a company without a middle man, other rates are applied.

With Basecamp, for instance, you'd get proper pay so you'd be able to afford flight tickets for a conference, which is not the case with rates in this article.

Disclaimer: born, lived and worked not too far from Armenia; worked in outsourcing for a good chunk of my early career. I'm a strong advocate of location-independent fair salary and hope other companies will follow Basecamp's lead.

EDIT: typo.