That’s penalizing those living in a lower CoL area. “Here’s a giant paycheck for those of you who want to live in the Bay Area where you can eventually buy a $2 million house.”

Subsidizing high-CoL people who get the advantages of being in a city is not fair at all. It’s only tolerated because high-CoL cities tend to be where the talent is most concentrated so you have to compete for them.

For example, Google will not pay Zurich engineers Bay Area equivalent salaries despite there being similar CoLs.

I’m a programmer living in a low CoL area. My salary (for 25 years now) has reflected that. I think it’s fair. I don’t make the same money as I would in an urban center, but, then, my longest commute during that time was 20 minutes. Usually about 5.

Why do you think that’s fair? Why should you be expected to subsidize a co-worker who does the same thing as you but demands to live in a super expensive city?

Would you think it’s fair if you lived in the same city but your company paid more money to people with more expensive houses?

Google actually pays Zurich engineers more than Bay Area, something like +15% IIRC. I was close to moving out there at one point and know a few people who did.

No, not when it comes to TC. L5 TC when I left Google was just under $500k once stock and target bonus were counted (for new stock grants not counting appreciation). Zurich TC was like $250-300k USD for L5s in my same group.