This is very correct. I feel in East Coast and other parts of US besides California companies are underpaying their engineers and expect to get talented people

This is very correct. I feel in East Coast and other parts of US besides California companies are underpaying their engineers and expect to get talented people for a low annual salary. From experience this is especially true in New York City where engineers in big banks get underpaid a lot and could earn double the salary if they worked in California.