Discussion on: Should remote workers be paid differently based on location?

I'm not exactly sure that your equivalency works here. The attributes you mentioned should definitely NOT be used to determine wage as they are things a person cannot control (nor do they have any bearing on their skillset), but money has different values based on geographical location. This is especially true in larger countries (based on area, not necessarily population) like the U.S.

For example, where I live, my salary probably goes a lot further (due to a lower cost of living) than it would in San Francisco. But, you also cannot base it on cost-of-living because what happens if you're paying a remote employee and they move to a location where the cost of living is lower than where they moved from? You can't lower their salary simply because they moved. But, if they move to a location with a higher cost of living, do you give them a compensatory raise?

Basically, there are no real easy answers to this one. That's why I don't employ anyone other than myself 😀.