To an extent I can see the reasoning here. I think more prohibitive though is that even though you're asking people to move to a lower CoL area, there is still

To an extent I can see the reasoning here. I think more prohibitive though is that even though you're asking people to move to a lower CoL area, there is still some sticker shock when they see the lower salary. I can pretty confidently say there is a shortage of great talent where I live. It's nearly impossible to find any expert in native mobile development, Ruby, Go, or even Javascript. There are a lot of .NET guys here but having interviewed several hundred I can tell you quantity does not equal quality. I've been working in the same market for the last 12 years (since graduating college) and I can count on one hand the engineers from this city that I would want to hire if I started a development shop.