But if you're from the US, remote could mean you're competing with prospective employees from all over the world, who will often be cheaper. So equal pay would be getting lowballed even more, I'd think?

It just doesn’t match the reality of market forces and it’s obvious.

Agreed. Underpaying engineers is not funny. Perhaps desirable for a cookie-cutter, third-tier, sweatshop that runs on labor as dumb as their management. But not desirable for profitable firms that require real talent.

As a a manager who's hired remote engineers across 3 countries, Gitlab's salaries are laughably low.