> What are you going to do if your company makes an adjusted cost of living to your compensation?

Move to Hawaii? :)

If you get a cost of living adjustment, you still live in a place with much lower cost of living which gives you way more flexibility.

If 50% of income goes to rent, you burn right through your savings if you want some time off.

Or, you change jobs :)

I would file my resignation immediately if my employer tried to do "regional" pay. An employee is worth what they are worth, locale shouldn't effect that.

What's your definition of 'worth' though. Dev salaries are way inflated in very specific regions due to high demand and low supply. If location becomes less important, salaries will normalize... which means down if you're from the Bay area.

I'm all for normalizing pay, then all the talent won't go to the Bay, stack cash, then move back to middle America? Worth it determined by the market, of course.

Yeah, I don't want to be an employee all my life.