Atlassian is arguably one of Australia’s greatest companies and definitely the best tech company we’ve ever produced. It has introduced a pay system that rewards a worker in Sydney and Melbourne more than someone in Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart or Darwin.

In this discriminatory wage hierarchy, a worker in Byron Bay will get more than an exact equivalent in Brisbane. But the AFR says Atlassian’s cofounder, Scott Farquhar, claims it’s not discriminatory because all pay packets at the company are way over the award.

The company is recruiting over a 1,000 workers with an average salary of $120,000 and Scott and his team are in a big campervan called the Atlassivan, travelling the country looking for new recruits.

Of course, it is discriminatory and Atlassian isn’t the first company to offer different pay based on where you live and what the cost of living is.

When lockdowns taught a lot of workers the joy of working from home, the pandemic has led to employees redefining their job, which many employers have had to cop. In 2021, Google came out with the edict that employees would have their pay lowered if they switched to working from home permanently as the remote location has lower costs than where their former offices are located.

“Facebook and Twitter also cut pay for remote employees who move to less expensive areas, while smaller companies including Reddit and Zillow have shifted to location-agnostic pay models, citing advantages when it comes to hiring, retention and diversity,” the workplace website www.shrm.org revealed at the time.

Why firms take this pay-changing option is a big question that one day will end up in the Fair Work Commission, especially under a Labor Government. This work-from-home movement is great for employees who opt for it, and could have no effect on some companies, such as Atlassian, where all workers are allowed to work home-based. But other employers insist productivity falls and costs rise when employees aren’t in the office.

Then there’s the cybersecurity threat when confidential files are out of a restricted, better protected security system. Employers in this situation, who might insist on workers coming to the office, have lost staff and find it difficult to attract workers, who nearly all want the hybrid model of some days in the office and some work-from-home days too.

This raises the question of whether a worker’s pay should be determined by where they live? In 2021, debate was around the fairness of pay discrimination but there has always been different pay rates in Australia, such that a nurse or a teacher in different states could have had higher or lower pay rates.

What is different is big companies publishing it, and few of us know if an accountant at PwC Sydney was paid less than an equivalent in Darwin. But if companies start to reduce the pay of work-from-home staff, it will become a union and Fair Work Commission issue.

Why? Work-from-homers are voters and now they’re an army of election-deciders.

Paul Gollan, a professor of management at University of Wollongong, raised the subject of fairness with the AFR. “The reality of the marketplace is if you want people to work in Sydney, you have to pay them sufficient remuneration to be able to afford to work in Sydney,” he said. “But what the pandemic has done is show you can be just as productive, no matter where you are. You can be on Bondi Beach or Green Island, it doesn’t matter, unless there is some other requirement for you to be present.”

But what if an employee isn’t as productive? Some would be and some wouldn’t, doesn’t that imply an unfairness for employers? “Is it fair if you’re doing exactly the same job and are just as productive that you’re not paid the same money?” Professor Gollan asked.

The answer is ‘yes’ if you’re as productive and you don’t add costs and lower profits for your boss. But if you hurt the business pursuing your own interests, then there has to be an argument that you get paid less to help the business cope with your personal decision. This will be a big issue for the Fair Work Commission.

Strange days indeed lie ahead for employers and employees, who could be replaced with someone working offshore.