> And yes, location matters: the company usually needs to create a subsidiary in the country of the employee, get familiar with their judicial and tax system, then there's also the issue of time zones, travel cost to company meetings, etc.

remote.com is a good counterexample here: https://remotecom.notion.site/Total-Rewards-Glossary-ec96c10...

location-based pay is (generally) a product of how much the employer can get away with rather than the operational cost etc...