Facebook's move to permanently embrace remote work for its employees may unleash dreams of drawing a tech-sector salary without having to pay Silicon Valley rent. Well, dream on.

The social networking company will require those who are approved to work remotely to notify the firm by January where they will be based. At that point, Facebook will adjust their salaries to reflect the local cost of living, whether it’s Palo Alto or Poughkeepsie.

It’s part of a plan to stymie what’s known as “paycheck arbitrage,” the idea that remote workers could earn San Francisco-level salaries while living in Sioux Falls, Iowa.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook will monitor where employees access their virtual private networks known as VPN. He says those who try to get around pay adjustments will be subject to what he called, "severe ramifications." To avoid violating tax laws, the company needs to account for where employees are located.

Within a decade, Zuckerberg said he sees half of Facebook's employees working from home.

Facebook is one of the Valley's biggest employers. Its move could prompt other tech companies to compete for engineers by embracing remote work. What's more, other states could compete to lure Californian talent, prompting one venture capitalist to opine that the biggest loser could be California.