You can have offers "you can't refuse" even if you live in a major hub. But it's mostly the case that then it's a matter of you really wanting to do something on net as opposed to having to move to keep food on the table.

This varies a lot for different people at different stages of life.

For some, +$20,000 to their current salary is an offer they can't refuse, for others, they would need to double their existing six figure salary to even consider moving to another hub.

I guess I’m privileged but I wouldn’t move more than 50 miles for any amount of $.

I could say the same. Money and a particularly nice location, that might be different.

Once the basics and some future security are there, more money just means a bigger resource footprint. That's still nice to have, people certainly continue preferring wealth over poverty, but it would be crazy if trade-off thresholds between modesty and ambition didn't shift a little due to awareness of environmental impact.

Not even $20M a year? You could just work for one year and be set for life basically anywhere you want to live.

Anyone would move for a limited time period for a life changing amount of money like $20m/year.

But for realistic wages in my field, I doubt there is anywhere that would pay me enough to move. Short of moving into management (which I have little experience with) the most I could expect for making a move would be about an extra $40-60k/year moving to the Bay area which would basically cover the difference in cost of living and maybe a little extra pocket change.

That's not really worth it for me.

Yeah. When a lot of classmates were taking jobs in Manhattan I pretty much decided you couldn't pay me enough after having an internship there one summer. (This was back in the 80s to boot.)

But, of course, I didn't literally mean that. Offer me a few million a year guaranteed and I could put up with a lot for life-changing money. But realistically not going to happen.

If someone is offering $20m a year, I can safely assume the job is bogus and pass.

for $20M/year you are not really "moving". I are just getting another (very comfortable) place of residence, and you can travel as you see fit (incl. private jets).

Sure but I prefer to keep myself grounded in reality.

Then you wouldn't even move. Just rent some apartment for a year and then return home when you're done. That's more than enough to pay for a mortgage and rent.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Not 1.2 or 1.4 birds in the bush

The real answer is her question, "why would I move?" Recruiter probably didn't have a good response.

But for a lot of people the answer is "I want to live somewhere else." I relocated away from a really nice job with challenging work and interesting co-workers simply because I didn't like where I was living. I suspect that I'm not the only one.