I would imagine a software engineer at Google is earning a lot more than £7.35 an hour, and could easily move into a better place to live if they wanted to.

If you are earning £7.35 an hour, assuming 37.5 hours a week, that is £1,076.11 per month after taxes. Zoopla has quite a few properties to rent in Dumfirmline for under £500 per month [0] - it isn't SF prices.

I'd take a guess and say that the people doing this are seasonal workers who live further away. It's not worth relocating for a few months, and commuting for 2 hours per day isn't nice (from Edinburgh during rush hour it could easily take over an hour to get to Amazon's warehouse), so this is their choice.

[0] http://www.zoopla.co.uk/to-rent/property/dunfermline/?price_...

> I would imagine a software engineer at [popular internet company] is earning a lot more than £7.35 an hour

Not necessarily. Depends on the location and the experience.

There are places where the pay would be in this range and the rent would be half of that.

1/10th costs of living of the valley is nothing extraordinary.

You can easily get a apartment share for minimum wage in that part of the country.

Choice.