Your paragraph makes no logical sense, a 20k raise is not the same wherever you live, taxes and the things you'll ultimately buy with it vary in cost so it's in

Your paragraph makes no logical sense, a 20k raise is not the same wherever you live, taxes and the things you'll ultimately buy with it vary in cost so it's incomparable. Notice how the salary adjustment jives with the CNN calculator too, this is because the cola takes into account the things that people need to spend their salary on, if you buy a vw microbus and sleep in the office parking lot every night and have minimal dining needs then you will notice an absolute difference between regions, otherwise you won't, the salary variance is eaten by the cost of all he usual things people do.