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So offer then higher salaries to offset the costs of moving there? What exactly is the problem?

These are already high salaries, and they're still not enough.

And that's a good thing. These companies need to pay the true price for talent, which is much higher than what they're paying but also they've done a lot of dirty tricks to grow as big as they are; the real price for what they're asking should bleed them dry.

No, the northern states need to raise their mortgages so the southern states can keep their salaries low!

Yep. While startup salaries are, and have always been, a joke, it's corporate cost of living adjustments (COLAs) that are a worsening joke when they fail to account for true COL differences. If a megacorp insists on relocating you from Austin, TX to Menlo Park, CA it should include a 75% TC raise or it would be a pay cut and wouldn't make economic sense. It's imperative that rational employees hold corporations accountable and refuse to be underpaid because not doing so hurts everyone else in the industry.

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