The cost of living in Michigan is so much lower they shouldn't need to match west coast salaries. How many first year first year engineers are able to buy a house for example on the West coast?
The ceiling is so much higher in coastal cities though. I moved right after college because I wanted to become rich. There’s not a strong path in Michigan to become rich (or even nationally upper-middle-class)
They provide the same value though, right? So there should be headroom to pay close to that. If Michigan companies came even close to matching 1st tier city salaries they'd have the cream of the crop lining up around the block to join.
