I appreciate a lot of what Gitlab has done, but as someone who has been permanently remote for nearly a decade, I don't really consider them to be a leader in remote work. One of my biggest issues with Gitlab is that they pay based on locality, many other fully remote companies pay below Bay Area salaries, but they pay flat globally, meaning you can be location-independent without a pay-cut and it helps to bring in high quality talent from across the world. Gitlab instead seems to be focused on maximizing revenue per headcount rather than actually allowing their employees to enjoy the benefits of remote work.
I spent many years working at companies where I was underpaid relative to peers who went to the office, but I got paid the same whether I was currently residing in Prague, Santiago, or Kansas City, and that was a much fairer trade-off than getting pay-cut if you relocate to a lower cost of living area, and I have no doubt that the reverse is not true (they don't increase pay because you move to a HCOL).
I spent many years working at companies where I was underpaid relative to peers who went to the office, but I got paid the same whether I was currently residing in Prague, Santiago, or Kansas City, and that was a much fairer trade-off than getting pay-cut if you relocate to a lower cost of living area, and I have no doubt that the reverse is not true (they don't increase pay because you move to a HCOL).