Who on earth actually wants to work for a company like this?
I'm not being facetious. Companies face significant legal liability for not paying taxes correctly, and they have to ensure that all applicable federal, state, and local taxes are correctly being withheld and reported for their employees. They can't just look the other way and blindly allow employees to evade tens of thousands in SALT taxes annually.
If the answer is "no, of course not", then why is it okay for them (or any company) to pay you less, if you move to a lower COL area? It absolutely isn't fair, and companies want to eat their cake and have it too.
If you actually transfer to an SF team then yes, most large, multi office companies would adjust your pay to the SF bracket. If course that requires that an SF team has headcount and wants you. You can't just move because you feel like it.
I'd be surprised if this isn't the norm in companies with a distributed workforce.
And you win the Nobel prize for stating the obvious.
Tech salaries today in hotspots like Silicon Valley are probably on the order of twice what they were in the early noughties. Why? Because everyone’s so much more productive these days? Or because that’s what the market dictates?
Frankly, the calculus of your pay probably depends a lot less on your knowledge or output than you seem to think. Geography and luck play as large of a role.
I tend to think I should be paid X and should I choose to live in a more expensive region, that's the price I pay for choosing to reside in that region. If I decide saving million dollars is more important to me, then I move to Cleveland, maybe don't have the same scene as SF, but am able to save more, my choice.
Why should people in SV earn 120k+ per year over someone out in the rust belt doing the same work at 50-60k a year?
The real question is "what is the market?" Historically, with most people working in physical offices, markets were very local. If you lived in Boise, ID you could mostly only get a job in Boise, ID.
To the degree that remote work becomes significantly more common, I would expect those geographic barriers to break down some: salaries in the bay area and other high COL areas might drop some, while salaries in other places might rise some. I wouldn't expect complete equalization for quite some time though. Though that's just a guess. Predictions are hard.
In the end though the one thing I'm sure of is that companies will do what they've always done: pay the market rate to get the labor they need. Questions of fairness are basically irrelevant.
Excluding the FAANG companies, I see offers in SF consistently for 160-190K for most startups.
And I've seen similar offers here in Nebraska - Omaha, even Lincoln, for a similar level of salary. Obviously less offerings, but they are there.
Facebook has a big target on its back here, and it would be terrible press and regulatory scrutiny if it came out that a large number of employees were evading state and local taxes by claiming false residence. Facebook can do some basic due diligence here to prevent that from happening.
Show me the links to the job openings lol I am curious
2. That's pay for an engineer. Juniors get ~30% less, seniors get ~30% more.
3. Senior is attainable by most people, and will get you ~350k all-in.
4. The next level is not attainable by most people, but will be getting you ~450k all-in.
My friend is an intern at Facegoogle and is making 800K a year, excluding bonus. But my friend working a prop trading shop, with two years experience, is making 2M in a good year.