This is very true. Even after CoL adjustments, high-tech jobs in the midwest don't typically pay as well as the coasts. Especially in senior roles. Notice that this is especially true for the vast number of coastal-state cities that aren't SFBA [1].

However, this apt observation is not what the article is actually about. Mid-tech jobs are things like "...computer systems analyst, computer network architects, and support specialist...", which are very different jobs from software engineering.

[1] As an aside, CoL adjustments between the Midwest and coastal-state cities are extremely favorable to the Midwest in cases where you can actually afford to buy a house (read: not SFBA). If you buy a house in the midwest, you usually have to be okay with treating it as "not an investment". Whereas a house in Portland, Seattle etc. function as both a place to live as well as an investment likely to appreciate handsomely. Personally, I'm OK treating CoL as a sunk cost and not engaging in real estate speculation during my non-work hours. But from an objective perspective, the CoL pay cut suffered in MW cities is often unjustified given the opportunity cost of not living in an area with more and more predictable real estate appreciation. Selfishly, I wish folks in the Midwest had more success convincing their employers that "cheap land" is not a good justification for severely underpaying their labor force.