At the same time when a company in my home state, offers pay at 55k for something that pays the equivalent of over double that on the coast there is something w

At the same time when a company in my home state, offers pay at 55k for something that pays the equivalent of over double that on the coast there is something wrong. Software companies don't magically have smaller margins based on their geolocation if their user-base and contracts are global. In essence their offer of half what is reasonable is pure greed because they know they can get away with it in many cases. There are lots of companies doing exactly this and driving costs lower in areas where they can get away with it. I think a non-trivial amount of brain-drain is simply paying people what they are worth regardless of how nuanced the issue actually is.