Adjusting salaries based on location is,

”evil”?

It's not just adjusting salaries based on location. It's slashing people's salaries by quarters and halves even if they have been working at the company for years just because they moved somewhere cheaper.

Your value hasn't decreased just because you live in Wisconsin instead of California. Your contributions are the same and you are just as productive of an employee. They have no right decreasing your salary just because they can get away with it.

Have you missed out on the last 50 years of history of American labor and union busting? Programmers are not special snowflakes in this regard, just currently in a very friendly market environment, but don't think for a moment that the people in charge wouldn't do the same thing if they had the option to (which remote work certainly helps with).

I'm painfully aware. Programmers aren't special snowflakes but they have traditionally been well off in this regard. My worry is that if they are being targetted by these kinds of decisions that it legitimises efforts to increase actions against who don't traditionally have as much social mobility.

Should Wisconsin employers be expected to pay SF-equivalent salaries?

Why would that be Google's concern?

It's not. Same as how it's not relevant to compare salaries for different markets: in person SV vs remote vs rural USA vs 3rd world country.

“They have no right”? Actually they do.

And do you have an example of somewhere their salary was “slashed by half”?

Especially a company with the Nerve to have a slogan of “Don’t be evil”.

I think they actually phased that saying out a while ago, lol

It was obviously a canary.

When the MBA suits take over from the techies this is what happens

Public trading.