After major companies announce their employees won’t need to come in, many are recalculating the cost of living near the office. From a report: With some of the highest rents in the world, the Bay Area has been dealing with an affordability crisis for years. The region saw 5.4 new jobs for every unit of housing built from 2011 to 2017, according to Bloomberg calculations of U.S. census data. The entire state is expensive, with the median price for a house exceeding $600,000, more than double the national level. In Silicon Valley that means most workers have been renting — and are therefore able to pick up and move. Both Facebook and Google have announced that most people won’t need to come in this year, and Twitter has told some workers that if they wish to work from home permanently, they can.
Employees are now considering the thousands of dollars they could save living somewhere else — maybe even permanently. Urban parents of young children suddenly find themselves coveting backyards and playrooms in larger homes that would be affordable on a tech salary pretty much anywhere except the Bay Area. Some employees, expecting years of rolling shelter-in-place orders, are making long-term life decisions now. And they have a lot of housing options, given that the starting salary for a software engineer at Facebook and Google exceeds six figures, according to Glassdoor data. Christy Lake, chief people officer at San Francisco-based Twilio, says several employees have already approached their managers and HR representatives to discuss plans to relocate. The cloud communications company expects more than 20% of its office-based employees will transition to working remotely in the long term. But the trend raises complicated questions. If employees move to a less expensive location, should Twilio adjust their salaries accordingly?
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot