Many of you probably read the title of this post, rolled your eyes into the back of your head and thought "wow, this woman is a real genius. Who woulda thought cost of living mattered?"
Yes, I get it. Everything thinks about cost of living when they contemplate a geographic move, but apparently not everyone believes that it will apply to them or thinks that each specific legal market differs in terms of compensation. For example, I recently worked with a delightful corporate associate who wanted to move from the East Coast to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He had about two years of solid, sophisticated corporate experience from a firm that paid him a base salary of $170K a year. When we began the search for a new job in Milwaukee, I explained to him that firms pay much less there than they do in Washington, D.C., partly because of the difference in cost of living, but also because the market simply supports lower salaries.  I even went so far as to say that the major firms in the area start their first year associates at $110K to $115K. My candidate responded to this by saying that he understood this and was prepared for a significant decrease in compensation. However, when an offered rolled in at $119K, this candidate was less than impressed.
