Sometimes living in a high cost of living area isn’t optional. For example, I have to do a lot of elder care for family members who live in a major urban center. They’ve lived there for all their lives, and the doctor suggests it would be pretty mentally harmful to forcibly uproot them at this point. I need to be super physically close to them, so I have to live in an urban center. I would not consider working for an employer that acted like this was my “choice” and expected me to take lower net pay as a result.

The same could be true if someone has a family member incarcerated at a certain prison and needs to live close by for visits or to help with legal procedures.