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”?