This article and most of the comments ignore a major factor. I suspect that location and lifestyle play as large a roll as salary in this decision. It is hard t

This article and most of the comments ignore a major factor. I suspect that location and lifestyle play as large a roll as salary in this decision. It is hard to give up wide open spaces and recreational opportunities once you are used to them, let alone family and friends. Waking up at 4am isn't even that big a deal when you do the same thing on the weekend to ski, climb, hunt, fish etc. I recently moved to Western Montana to work remotely for my old job (far from the oil fields though some do comute to work two week on week off arrangements). The Northern Rockies are full of people trying to figure out how to live here and make a decent living. For some this means an advanced degree to get them into the medical, legal, forestry, teaching etc fields but the cliche of PHD's waiting tables is common as well. Some companies and the national lab system have taken advantage of this willing work force (there is a glaxo smith klien vacine facility in a small town near me for example) but not enough. It is a pity that fracking technology is booming while improvements to the electrical grid and wind/solar development procedes slowly despite great potential in the region.