[laurencerowe]

The vast majority of SF's population don't make anything close to tech salaries either. Working at a FAANG or adjacent company in the Bay Area is roughly equivalent to working in finance in London.

But even outside of the big tech companies, wages for software engineers are relatively higher in the US than the UK (90th percentile vs 75th) and the higher paid are paid more (2.6x the median at 90th percentile vs 2.0x the median.) If you compare median salaries / rents on pre Brexit and 2008 financial crash exchange rates SF and the Bay Area come out pretty similar.