[throwawaythekey]

I struggle to see the mental leap many are making here.

Are you stating that cost of living impacts your skill level? In some cases that may be true but I think for what most are discussing here the causation would be the other way.

Growing up in a poor area may effect your skill level but moving as an adult from a high COL to low COL area should have minimal impact.

To me it makes more sense that each developer would command the salary that corresponds to their skills, and then adjust their COL in order to be comfortable.

[gwright]

> Are you stating that cost of living impacts your skill level?

Not at all. If all things are equal except the cost of living difference then a company can get X units of value at a discount by hiring the person with the lower cost of living at a lower salary. The discount is equal to the cost-of-living difference.

Of course in the real world things are rarely "equal" except for cost-of-living and so the effect is only going to be seen in the aggregate.

[throwawaythekey]

> company can get X units of value at a discount by hiring the person with the lower cost of living at a lower salary.

So the hiring process should favour low salaries rather than cost of living?

If that is the case then you can easily replace cost of living adjustments with candidate salary expectation.

[gwright]

"market rate" is a metric that incorporates candidate salary expectations and geographic cost of living adjustments as well as many other things such as tax considerations?