I can definitely see people wanting to stay in an area and accept lower wages because they identify strongly with the area (in the US and Canada, I’m betting Qu

I can definitely see people wanting to stay in an area and accept lower wages because they identify strongly with the area (in the US and Canada, I’m betting Quebec ranks near the top in terms of this) or because they identify looking for a high salary as taboo. At the same time, it’s a sure-fire recipe for a brain drain, as undoubtedly some very smart people will emigrate for 2x-3x higher wages (based on your numbers), and just as importantly very few people will want to immigrate and accept lower wages. On the time scale of decades this definitely creates a big issue.