Contrary to the theme of vitriol expressed by many comments here, I understand the line of thinking and it's fairly reasonable. However there's a big blind spo

Contrary to the theme of vitriol expressed by many comments here, I understand the line of thinking and it's fairly reasonable. However there's a big blind spot in this policy: markets have qualitative differences that affect perceived market rates. In SV there is high supply, high demand, and companies are relatively good at evaluating talent; in short, talent is more liquid and it's less of a market for lemons. In cities with lesser tech footprint companies aren't as good at evaluating talent, less good at leveraging and there is less difficulty retaining employees, so average wages are depressed. However top tier talent can be hired remotely, and will generally be worth well above market in less sophisticated markets. When I first looked at your salary scale a few years ago when I was living in Oakland and the discrepency between SF and Oakland was absolutely ridiculous. I assume that has been fixed, but even as someone who might accept your SF pay, I know my worth, and would not consider working for you in any other region. I'm sure you'll find some good talent that doesn't know their own value, but you'll miss out disproportionately on the seasoned talent.