[WadeF]

We absolutely hire based on merit. People are living in rural areas making a great salary because we pay mostly fixed to Chicago market.

We don't downsize your salary. But sometimes we can't upsize it. There's a few companies we can't compete with on salary like Google. Most of those employers seem to be in the bay area. Sometimes we lose out. A lot of times we don't. The world isn't quite so black and white here.

[Touche]

Yes, you do downsize salaries. Paying Jill less than Bob where Jill is a better worker because she lives in Little Rock Arkansas and Bob lives in NYC is downsizing Jill's salary.

Jill can do better. Hopefully other remote companies seek out the Jills and pay them what they are worth.

[WadeF]

I suppose that is true in the narrow case of SF/NYC. We're working to grow profits to make it so that isn't the case in the couple places that have the highest cost of living in the world.