For whatever it's worth, even with the salary cut remote employees are facing, the paybands for FAANG employees in (relatively) affordable cities are still top-of-market.
For example, remote GOOG employees in Atlanta take a 10-20% salary cut compared to the Bay Area salaries. But the net takehome is still higher (on average) than the takehome for the in-office Bay Area engineers. And the overall compensation is better than >80% of existing Atlanta metro SWE compensation.
That's part of the reason why there has been such a huge influx of people to metros like Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, etc.
For example, remote GOOG employees in Atlanta take a 10-20% salary cut compared to the Bay Area salaries. But the net takehome is still higher (on average) than the takehome for the in-office Bay Area engineers. And the overall compensation is better than >80% of existing Atlanta metro SWE compensation.
That's part of the reason why there has been such a huge influx of people to metros like Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, etc.