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It might help if mid-western companies paid equivalent salaries as on the coasts. There seems to be this attitude in the Midwest that lower CoL justifies lower

It might help if mid-western companies paid equivalent salaries as on the coasts. There seems to be this attitude in the Midwest that lower CoL justifies lower salaries, as if there's no need to compensate for lower QoL with money. Given equal salary, hordes of people will choose Midwestern winters over SF rent. But this attitude of "I don't have to pay you as much because land is dirt cheap, never mind that it's on a flat prairie in -20F weather" needs to be reversed. Especially since most of that land isn't ever appreciating, so I'm just paying rent to the bank instead of to a landlord anyways. Midwestern companies: don't do CoL adjustments if you aren't also willing to do QoL adjustments.

maxsilver 9y ago
> There seems to be this attitude in the Midwest that lower CoL justifies lower salaries, as if there's no need to compensate for lower QoL with money. As a local Midwesterner, they don't do this because many people here don't want to think their QoL is lower and some will even feign offense that you implied their QoL is any lower than anywhere else. Ironically, this bites them in the ass in wages. Companies don't pay people fairly out here because they don't have to. Most of the locals have convinced themselves that their QoL isn't any lower. Their own employees proudly display their own below-market wages as evidence of why their home is a great place to live, they are essentially negotiating their own wages downward. It's a pure win-win for most companies, why would they want to disrupt that process?
- gamblor956 9y ago
  I explain it to people this way when they ask why I left the Midwest: the Midwest is the Walmart of America. It's large, cheap, and the quality of most aspects of life is relatively low (weather, food, social life, career growth, etc.). But if it's all you can afford, it's a better place to be than somewhere expensive.
- redblacktree 9y ago
  You guys are doing all this theorizing, but I live in the Midwest because that is where my family is. That's part of QoL.

maxsilver 9y ago

> There seems to be this attitude in the Midwest that lower CoL justifies lower salaries, as if there's no need to compensate for lower QoL with money. As a local Midwesterner, they don't do this because many people here don't want to think their QoL is lower and some will even feign offense that you implied their QoL is any lower than anywhere else. Ironically, this bites them in the ass in wages. Companies don't pay people fairly out here because they don't have to. Most of the locals have convinced themselves that their QoL isn't any lower. Their own employees proudly display their own below-market wages as evidence of why their home is a great place to live, they are essentially negotiating their own wages downward. It's a pure win-win for most companies, why would they want to disrupt that process?

gamblor956 9y ago
I explain it to people this way when they ask why I left the Midwest: the Midwest is the Walmart of America. It's large, cheap, and the quality of most aspects of life is relatively low (weather, food, social life, career growth, etc.). But if it's all you can afford, it's a better place to be than somewhere expensive.
redblacktree 9y ago
You guys are doing all this theorizing, but I live in the Midwest because that is where my family is. That's part of QoL.