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If pay is increased solely to compensate for house prices, then working in a higher cost of living area is still better because the job buys you a more valuable

If pay is increased solely to compensate for house prices, then working in a higher cost of living area is still better because the job buys you a more valuable house. Imagine if house prices were a non-issue because companies just give you a free house when you start. Would you consider still the job in a cheap housing area equal? Anyway at the senior levels the pay is even more stupid high in SV, way more than anything you'd need to live on. How high do salaries go in Australia?

nsonha 5y ago
individual contributors top at around 140k (AUD180k package), but the 90% tops at 128k which is a "tech lead salary". I don't have the experience to tell how high tech leads go, but I'm guessing 200k. Some outliers are Optiver (a prop trading firm) paying 160k (half of which is bonus) and Google paying (up to I heard) 125k to grads. However the number of companies like that in Australia you could count on one hand (Amazon, Atlassian, Canva), so there is nothing to drive average salary up like in SV. RSU is way less common. There are also cases of double standards such as companies founded in Australia expanding to the US offers way better perks and RSU to US staff but stop offering RSU to new Australian hires.