> However, the wages are way higher b/c cost of living is higher. I think it's a little more subtle than this. The wages are higher because there's more opport

> However, the wages are way higher b/c cost of living is higher. I think it's a little more subtle than this. The wages are higher because there's more opportunity for employees, who are being poached constantly, and often by companies with essentially limitless budgets. If you hope to retain engineers, you need to pony up in SFO, but less so in Omaha, where there are fewer people competing for talent. Companies say they pay for cost of living, but in reality, there are plenty of expensive cities where salaries are relatively low (e.g. much of Europe) and cheap cities where salaries are relatively high (e.g. Houston, though not necessarily for engineers).