[yalurker]

What if you are moving from a low cost area to a high cost area?

I just checked out an online cost-of-living calculator and my salary in Austin would have to increase by 2.6x to have the same quality of life in Palo Alto.

How many HR types are going to realize that 50 in Austin is 100 in San Fran or Manhattan?

[rcoder]

Any "HR type" who does their job well absolutely will know how to do a cost-of-living conversion, and should effectively screen and prepare candidates armed with that knowledge.

It goes both ways, of course; less-savvy candidates might not know what they're getting into, and can be offered what seems like a sizable salary bump only to discover after arrival that they're worse-off in total.