> Should every company just start offering bay area salaries to everyone, since bay area salaries are at the top end? No, but FAANG and other extremely profita

> Should every company just start offering bay area salaries to everyone, since bay area salaries are at the top end? No, but FAANG and other extremely profitable companies might try it. If you offer Bay Area salaries to everyone who’s currently in a top 20 CS PhD programme and tell them they can live wherever they want you’ll get a pretty good yield. Even better if you make a standing offer to everyone who completes X hard classes on GA Tech’s OMSCS. This wouldn’t be worthwhile if the productivity differential between remote and office was high enough but in the long run wages approach the marginal product of labour absent employer collusion. Might take 20 years but eventually the top end of the market will be getting comparable numbers whether in NYC or Bangor, Maine.