If these large tech companies just used the US GS Scale's locality adjustment, it would be super easy and non-controversial.
It wouldn't be the same thing if it wasn't based on job-required worksite. They don't pay you based on where you live (which is quite often a different county than the work site), but where you are assigned to work. If you have no assigned worksite, as is the case with remote work, there'd be no basis for the adjustment.
> If these large tech companies just used the US GS Scale's locality adjustment, it would be super easy and non-controversial.
Super easy, yes.
Non-controversial, no.
Unless your employer assigns your residence, it's not a difference in job duty.you are being paid for, so is not analogous to being paid for employer-assogned job site when analyzing disparate impact.
US FedGov location pay is based on federally-dictated work site, not where the employee resides. Adjusting salaries based on employer location demands is non-controversial, and based on different job requirements in
Paying people less because they live where lots of black people live (and race and other protected classes in US employment law do correlate with cost of living), when the employer requirements do not differ on whit, is not the same thing.