The website Payscale.com asks: “Should pay be adjusted for remote employees?” The real question isn’t whether it should, the question should be “Is pay adjusted for remote workers?” To which the answer is: “Yes, yes it is.”
This is just reality. When a business is hiring from a local pool of workers, the cost of living and tax climate of the local area dictates what amount of pay workers will be willing to accept. A person in Manhattan or Oahu, where the cost of living is high, will demand a higher salary than a person in Biloxi.
It isn’t just that, however. Labor is a product to be sold, and is thus subject to supply and demand, just like any other product. Expanding the labor pool from the local area to the entire nation increases the supply and thus the value of the labor.
One of the things that COVID and the lockdowns did to the business climate was to show businesses that expensive office space on Park Avenue in Manhattan wasn’t strictly necessary for success. Most office workers are capable of doing their jobs remotely. It won’t be long before businesses begin recruiting employees from places like Des Moines because they will soon realize that the employee pool there doesn’t need to be paid as much as the employees from Manhattan who are having to pay $3500 a month for a studio apartment after paying a quarter of their salary in state and local taxes. Places like Tulsa will soon host remote workers in the same way that India and the Philippines now host call centers.
This is why cities like Nashville and Clearwater Beach are seeing population booms as cities like Chicago and New York City see massive relocations.
The employment reality is changing.
6 Comments
Skyler the Weird · October 3, 2021 at 7:43 pm
Remote employees in Hyderabad and Manila are even less expensive.
Sme Guy · October 3, 2021 at 8:35 pm
Sure. However, the workers from Chicongo and NYFC moving to these conservative States bring their stupid collectivist yankee ideas with them. Soon enough, the raped locations are voting that straight D ticket.
Every time. Then, as things go to shit, those same yankee gypsies will move on to cheaper, better run shores, and quickly befoul them, too.
True story:
Co-worker whose parents moved here from Boston when he was a lad – aka Dumbass: “Yeah, but I still think there should be street lights on most roads.”
Me: “Why? Don’t your headlights work?”
Dumbass: “Well,..Yeah! They work! But it would be better if we had streetlights everywhere. Safer, ya know? Like, when I go back home to Massachussets, everything is lit! We need that here.”
Me: “So…why did your family move here from Boston?”
Dumbass: “It was so expensive. Really, it cost so much!”
Me: “Hmm. Why do you think it cost so much?”
Dumbass: “Well, all the taxes!”
Me: “So, who pays for all of the street lights?”
Dumbass: “I don’t know? The power company?”
Me: “Your taxes. Power is not free. Poles and lights are not free. We pay for it through taxes.”
Dumbass: “… … … Yeah, but I’d still like the lights.”
Yeah, I know, NAYALT.
But, in my experience, you are.
Max Barrage · October 4, 2021 at 12:55 pm
I hope your next reply to him was “well, then you’re fucking moron”
rightwingterrorist · October 4, 2021 at 1:04 am
Hmmm….
Offhand, I’m guessing that at this point it really don’t matter.
Grammar intentional.
-rightwingterrorist
JNorth · October 4, 2021 at 2:49 pm
Last winter when we all had to work from home, one of our coworkers from the Nome, Alaska office was instead working from Hawaii another was at this second place outside Vegas, nice to do that when it was -30 in Nome.
Jonathan · October 5, 2021 at 8:21 am
I know that some companies are doing better with telework and some are not… I’m curious how many companies are doing well with it, and how many jobs require at least an occasional presence in the office that requires the telework to be nearby?
Both my current and former jobs require an occasional presence in the office and require telework to be done nearby in case one is called into the office.
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