I worked remotely 17 years for a large SV tech corp doing work that was global in nature. 5 years in, they instituted a policy of having salary modifiers based on where you lived for both remote and onsite employees. Your salary wouldn't immediately change, but when it came time for increases, your compensation rate was considered. I had no problem with this policy because I lived on the side of a mountain and my house cost 1/5th a Bay Area home. Instead of a 1.5hour commute home, I would have a 1.5hr mountain bike ride out my back door. Now, the salary difference wasn't 50%, it was more like 25%, but I would have taken 50% to not have to live in the Bay Area.
The real downside was that I had minimal mobility because most of the tech world is still in the dark ages of management by proximity. Doing a job search in the startup world in the age of Covid, I assumed that there would be an explosion of WFH jobs, but most are not.
The real downside was that I had minimal mobility because most of the tech world is still in the dark ages of management by proximity. Doing a job search in the startup world in the age of Covid, I assumed that there would be an explosion of WFH jobs, but most are not.