> Bartenders in South Dakota don't make the same as bartenders in San Francisco for a reason, though they add the same value to an establishment.

I bet the drinks in SF cost more so they actually do add more value there. You're talking about on-premise work and I'm talking about remote work. If you have a great dev that starts working remote in NY then moves to Kentucky would you give them a pay cut? Of course not, they'd still be super valuable to the company and you'd want to retain them.