[ig1]

Because you're talking about two different markets, when you're talking about applying for a job as a full-time in-office employee you're basically competing with the limited pool of people in the local area.

If you're applying for a remote freelancer role, you're competing against people all around the world. Not only are there more of them but many of them will live in areas where their cost of living is an order of magnitude lower than yours.

That's the fundamental reason remote freelancers earn less than in-house employees.

If remote-freelancers were equivalent to local employees then arbitrage would drive down the price of local employees, but they're not. Companies place a premium on local employees (less overhead, better team dynamics, long term investment, stronger IP protection, etc.) and that's why local employee salaries haven't been driven down.