I think it is a nice move for those companies. I live at Update NY area, the living standard here is much lower than NY city, Philly and California, but the salary is not bad. My boss had an interview with Google two years ago in Mountain View, California. They offered him a job (technical manager) but the salary was lower than the one he has right now. But in Mountain View the cost of living is 10 times higher than here. So he turned down the job at Google. He said he could not even afford a 1000 square condo with the salary they offered him. Now he owns a 2500 sq feet house with 2 aces of land.