Biggest factor is where you live... because we all know that people are paid according to the value they create, and bits forged in places with high rent are inherently more valuable.
Apparently, it's more profitable to pay developers nearly twice as much, than it is for a VC or CEO to take a airplane flight a few times a year.
Or it's theoretically worth twice as much to locate your company near the big tech companies. Can you really not entice people to move out to another city? Say Kansas City, which is quite pleasant. If they moved to K.C., a company could afford to pay devs the same salary as in San Fran, pay for devs to fly to a couple conferences each year, and give a bigger holiday bonus-- and they'd still come out ahead with the tax burden, office rent, support staff, etc. So is a hotshot dev from San Fran really refusing to move to K.C. for the same salary? They must know that their disposable income would double if they moved. I've been to both cities, and San Fran isn't that much better.
