And to address your concerns re: salary equalization - it's happened/happening for sure. It is why it is so important to uplevel and be the higher/more valuable employee/asset. If you're a good problem solver and software engineer, you can demand a higher wage, even with the equalization, as you're in a top %'tile market demand wise.

If you're aiming for low/mid-level (generic) employee, you're eventually going to have a hard time competing with someone who can survive on less. It has been what is causing a lot of the angst in the middle and lower class (especially in manufacturing jobs), as their labor is easy to outsource in many cases to cheaper places.