Every time I've seen this done it has nothing to do with remote work. It has everything to do with a geo-centric pay model. Companies typically calculate the li

Every time I've seen this done it has nothing to do with remote work. It has everything to do with a geo-centric pay model. Companies typically calculate the living expenses of a given geography, and slap that on top of a base pay like it's COLA. The hard part to swallow if you're on the losing end of this equation is that people in high inflation areas have long term assets that inflate as well, like homes. If they receive more long-term appreciating income like RSUs rather than cash then it compounds this problem. A general rule to retirement that I've constructed is that where you retire will be at least less than the cost of living of where you made your money. So, if you choose remote work early on in your career and live in Oklahoma, the choices of places to retire in are slimmed as compared to someone who does exactly what you do in San Francisco. The emotional toll of this is equally burdensome when you figure out that in tech we sell a product in large geographies for an equal price; so effectively someone is making more than you just by their very existence in a geography, whether that be a city, county, state, or nation.