Originally Posted by
Troy Tiscareno They pay well, yes, but the costs of living is a big reason why. Many of those employees WANT to live in San Francisco itself - and do - and of course SF prices make the other cities seem cheap.
Despite the high pay, there are employees who live in their cars in the parking lots of the companies - sometimes for years at a time - as they save money to try to buy a house, or before they can find an apartment that is both available and affordable for them.
The developers lucky enough to be able to live remotely and telecommute generally do very well, though - tech money but living in non-tech areas.