Having the experience of both working remotely and in office recently, you'd have to pay me a minimum of 50k per year more to RTO.
I don't want to commute. Above 150k or so I'm only keeping 50% of every dollar above that . So we're taking another 25k a year, or about 2k a month. I'm spending 2 hours a day on my commute. That's around 160 hours a month. That means I'm only making 12.5$ an hour commuting.
I also have to give up being able to shower mid day, cook, lay on my couch, etc.
I live in a high cost of living city right now, but I could just move to anywhere in the US tomorrow without issue.
> I could just move to anywhere in the US tomorrow without issue.
As someone who did that, be careful. It's not all sunshine and puppies. Many employers promise they can support a move or it's fine but then when you update your address in the HR system it becomes a different story. I certainly wouldn't advise anyone move to a US territory if they think they can just move without issue, employers absolutely will not hire here (not even Gusto).
Ok, so really you can't "just move to anywhere in the US tomorrow without issue" since you're raising issues.
I don't understand, you complained about an hour commute each way, I thought you wanted to reduce that, not move to the midwest. Anyway tons of people who work in Manhattan live in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, even the Bronx or (god forbid) New Jersey. Plenty of public transportation from just about anywhere in the region.
My point is "moving closer to work" doesn't make a lot of sense.
Queens to Manhattan is easily an hour or so.
I have a pretty high paid job that's fully remote. I'd have to make something like an additional 50k a year to even consider going back into the office.
Even then, it would have to be in a location I like.
Offices are relics which have no modern reason to exist for the vast majority of tech jobs. Often the team is distributed anyway.
I don't want to commute. Above 150k or so I'm only keeping 50% of every dollar above that . So we're taking another 25k a year, or about 2k a month. I'm spending 2 hours a day on my commute. That's around 160 hours a month. That means I'm only making 12.5$ an hour commuting.
I also have to give up being able to shower mid day, cook, lay on my couch, etc.
I live in a high cost of living city right now, but I could just move to anywhere in the US tomorrow without issue.