This issue needs to be re-framed. Google has always made pay adjusted based on cost-of-living. This isn't a change in that sense and it has nothing to do with w

This issue needs to be re-framed. Google has always made pay adjusted based on cost-of-living. This isn't a change in that sense and it has nothing to do with working from home. If you relocate to an office with a lower cost-of-living index, you'll still get your pay cut. The actual change here is they suspended the policy for people forced to work from home during the Covid pandemic, and are now ending that, so if you choose to continue working from home, you now get the home rate, not your office rate. Note that isn't necessarily lower, so this only results in a pay cut if you live in a place cheaper than your home office or chose to move to such a place since the pandemic started.