Companies don't pay employees relative to the value provided, they pay them what they can win in negotiation. One of the most important pieces in that negotiat

Companies don't pay employees relative to the value provided, they pay them what they can win in negotiation. One of the most important pieces in that negotiation is the employee's opportunity cost. "What would companies in your city pay you?" is a very relevant question, especially when most good tech jobs are not remote friendly. If we see remote take off in a big way, I expect "you live in a cheap city, we'll give you less money" to stop working as remote companies do away with it to attract better talent. That is, unless the best talent stays in the most expensive cities, and like to use that as an excuse for "fairly" getting more salary :)