In my current SF employer, a very large percentage of senior engineers with kids just remote from other places. The trick here is that companies that aren't pa

In my current SF employer, a very large percentage of senior engineers with kids just remote from other places. The trick here is that companies that aren't paying top dollar in SF have a lot of trouble getting senior engineers, as the Netflixes and Facebooks of the world pay more and offer RSUs. However, the same salaries that are seen as a bit lacking in SF are good enough to attract top remote talent. Therefore, the difference is not necessarily about lower salaries by cost of living, but lower salaries by company.