[sndean]

> Also, in some place like San Fransisco the cost of living is going to be 2x or more, so that 2-3x higher salary will end up translating into maybe 1.2x.

This is a pretty important point...

Currently it looks like a ~100k salary in San Fransisco is required to maintain the same standard of living that 55k gets you in Atlanta, Dallas, Raleigh, Pittsburgh, and essentially every other big city I've looked at. So about 1.8x higher is required.

For Toronto it's about 1.9x.

[seanp2k2]

I've heard this argument often and it's somewhat valid, but it doesn't take into account that the amount left after expenses are paid is still a lot more in the Bay Area, and that can be saved or invested or used to open up other options which are not available to the person making half as much with half the expenses somewhere else.

Cars cost basically the same across the US. So do flights, vacation homes, stocks, etc. For many, the idea is to pay the high cost of living here, save up, then move to somewhere much cheaper after an early retirement, career change, etc. Or you can stay until you retire and be extremely wealthy relative to the rest of the country / world. For me, it's not a tough choice, even though rent is ridiculous.

Edit: let us not also forget that the ceiling for pay as an engineer in the Bay Area is currently around half a million a year in salary, more if you get valuable stock options. It's not really possible to come close to that anywhere else as far as I'm aware. The average is lower than that, but where I'm from, you'd be very lucky to get 100k as a senior engineer. It makes things like renting a place here while paying off the mortgage on a home you rent out elsewhere (Portland or Hawaii or whatever you're into) totally viable.

[sndean]

> For many, the idea is to pay the high cost of living here, save up, then move to somewhere much cheaper after an early retirement, career change, etc.

I can definitely understand why this is attractive. Maybe I'm on the other side of the argument because I'm not really an engineer and don't plan on being one. So while there are jobs I'd consider in the Bay Area, there's a similar number of similarly paying jobs in NYC and DC, where rent is less.

> Cars cost basically the same across the US. So do flights, vacation homes, stocks, etc.

Yes, but the cost of living calculator should be resulting the same amount saved, after all expenses are paid.

> Edit: let us not also forget that the ceiling for pay as an engineer in the Bay Area is currently around half a million a year in salary

This is the most convincing argument, I think... If that's true, that the ceiling (after adjusting for cost of living) is higher in the Bay Area, then yeah it's a pretty clear choice for engineers.