So for context, I'm relocating from a VHCOL to a MCOL area. I saw a job listing online in the city I'm relocating to that had $120k-$140k as the range for a mid-career Civil Engineer position, so I applied and did well in my screening and technical interviews and now got an offer. During my screen though, I provided the recruiter with my current salary ($105k) when asked and thought nothing of it. The offer I received today had this spiel from the hiring manager which pretty much boils down to "since you currently make $105k in X city, and doing the math that's the equivalent of making $70k in Y city, I've decided to offer you $80k, which is roughly a 15% increase in what your current pay would've been in Y city."
Seems incredibly odd, I'm not necessarily angry because I don't know if I would've even wanted to work for the guy after having talked to him, but it seems the huge disparity between what the company posted on Glassdoor compared to how they "calculate" their base salary offer is so unorthodox and frankly a huge red flag. Just seeing if this is a standard way some companies operate in smaller cities or if anyone else has had experience with this.