It’s also not quite true that companies can just pay local rates. In my experience someone from low COL can easily find a position where the “local” pay band fo

It’s also not quite true that companies can just pay local rates. In my experience someone from low COL can easily find a position where the “local” pay band for their level is higher than the local rate. It’s virtually impossible for an engineer with 2 or 3 YOE from LCOL to find a local job paying 125k+, but not hard at all to find such a remote opportunity. Furthermore, not all jobs are equal. If Google moves their headquarters to Detroit they won’t suddenly pay Detroit wages. And finally there is another force at play here - companies need to fill the position and what they pay HCOL candidates establishes what they’re willing to pay for the work. Living in Beverly Hills doesn’t make you a better engineer. This isn’t a bargaining chip you can use, but it’s a fact you can benefit from if you’re persistent. The markets just arent siloed as much as people want to pretend.