No comment on the city itself, or what it's like for unskilled workers, but my old boss moved there to get a US$300k/yr salary at Uber.
He was getting around US$100k/yr in Melbourne.
San Francisco is a beautiful city and I enjoy visiting. There are parts of it that are an absolute nightmare, but that's also true of any major city.
It's got a ton of awesome history and venues, for sure, but its a place that exemplifies the problems of late stage capitalism. Foggy cold weather isn't that great either. My advice to anyone moving there chasing the money is to make as much as you can in 4 years and move out (if that's even a thing anymore going forward, with remote work being the norm).
/lived in Bay Area for 9 years, saw a friend get stabbed in the tenderloin, had someone throw a knife 9" across the street towards me when my wife and I were walking and watched it bounce in front of us, had someone throw a chunk of concrete at my windshild driving near union square.
[1](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/...)