Personally, I've never had an issue negotiating around this. Companies will certainly try to pay you less for any number of reasons. But there's no reason you

Personally, I've never had an issue negotiating around this. Companies will certainly try to pay you less for any number of reasons. But there's no reason you as the employee (with nearly all the leverage in this market) need to let that happen. I mean sure, it's clear that there's a cost difference between my house here in rural France and its equivalent in the Bay Area. But personally I'd prefer that difference be captured by me rather than my employer, so I don't tend to budge from my "Bay Area" rate. Here's hoping the rest of us fleeing the bay right now choose to stand up for themselves too.