Ask HN: Salary increase from Seattle to Bay Area

Think twice about it. Moving from middle of nowhere or from place where there is no tech is no brainer, but Seattle is a different story. First, consider that there is California income tax (unlike Washington where there is no state income tax). Second, if you want to live in decent place it's way more expensive than you'd be led to believe (check out craigslist + apartments.com). Third, consider that even if you join company and love your co-workers, those co-workers are most likely to be gone within 1-2 years. Engineers constantly switch jobs in Silicon Valley and average tenure at a company is pretty low (https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-average-tenure-of-a-softwa...).

Having said that, at a bigger company you can reasonably expect what you are looking for. But at a startup it might be a bit harder to negotiate to that level, also consider that if you don't perform within first couple of months then they'll most likely let you go.

Somewhere between 150 and 180 seems reasonable. So you should negotiate up, but don't be surprised if they won't go all the way to 175.