Tech salaries are pretty divergent if you compare a LCOL comp package to a HCOL total comp package. Unfortunately, the information gap there holds a lot of career progress back for a lot of people. I'm from a LCOL area, but I moved to a big city and my compensation has since tripled. I've tried to convince a lot of my friends back home to do the same, but it's super tough to get them to believe me. They're super misled by the cost of living adjustments and straight up think most of the high paid engineers are a myth.

On top of all that, a lot of sites only list base salary and misconstrue what your comp actually is, contributing to the asymmetry here (thanks levels for showing the true comp). What are ways that you've been able to get people to believe the numbers and make the switch?