I'm going to generalize here. It's important to note that there are exceptions, but they are _exceptions_. You're working for a company, not a person. Compan

I'm going to generalize here. It's important to note that there are exceptions, but they are _exceptions_. You're working for a company, not a person. Companies exist as a way to make money: they have _no_ other motivation. Notions of fairness, decency, humanity, etc, have zero relevance to corporate behaviour. People who work for companies are actively discouraged, even prohibited, from using human morality or fairness as criteria in deciding what to do: corporate decisions are about the short-term financial gains for shareholders. Employment policies exist to codify the processes used to achieve this goal, because people a fallible, and tend to have moral scruples, and that gets in the way of perfect implementation of the corporate will. They're necessarily a blunt instrument, with inefficiencies, but in a company staffed by humans, that's the best it can do. The costs of employing someone have several parts: salary + benefits to the employee, taxes due to the locality they're employed, and the costs of equipment, services, office-space, etc, needed by the employee. The goal of the company is to get the best/most output for the least cost. With some initial overheads (setting up foreign legal entities, structuring to support remote work, etc) foreign workers are often a means to this end. The only reason the company talks about "cost of living", etc, is because that's what potential employees tell it when they negotiate (or refuse) a job offer. It doesn't care: it just knows that unless it pays that much, people will work for its competitors instead. The reason you're paid less is because you'll work for less. And if not you, then someone else in a similar location. If the company can get more output for less money elsewhere, it will. The only reason the company has local staff is because it believes that not having them will ultimately cost more (in quality, in agility, in reputation, whatever. Often this corporate belief is biased/racist). So, what to do? Find a company that realizes that the best people are not all magically located in California, and is prepared to pay more so that it gets the benefits of your work rather than one of its competitors. As other commenters have mentioned: in negotiating your salary, point out that you have other options, and if they want you, they need to be willing to out-bid their competitors. But your current employer has limited scope for this: you really need to move. Once you're employed, the company counts on you being risk-averse enough to stay, even if you're relatively under-paid. The only way to level up is to move. Good luck!