HousingJul 25, 2018
NewMojoman

Remote work law

Bay Area cost-of-living is getting out of hand and commute times are stressful. I think we need a remote work law in California where if an employee requests to work remotely from any location in California, the employer must oBlige. Based on the county where the employee wishes to live in, the employer can then appropriately scale down the salary if they want. This would lead to a win-win situation for labor and management. Imagine if you could order a nice big house near Central Coast on Pismo beach working remotely and only go into the office once a week.

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PayPal Main Jul 25, 2018

Then why even expect people to show up once a week ?

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Mojoman OP Jul 25, 2018

Because some in person meetings are necessary for team productivity. So the employer would pay for your transportation to come into town maybe once a week, once in two weeks, whatever frequency they choose. But the bottom line is that the employer must pay for you to come to their location.

PayPal Main Jul 25, 2018

I like this idea. Would like to see more employers get behind this, or atleast a/b test this model for a few projects

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Xhsrvhyds Jul 25, 2018

There are plenty of people who don't like to commute but do it. It's all part of why your salary can be so high living in such a crappy area. Part of that high comp is cost of living. If that wasn't the case we'd have millionaire living in tons of different states instead

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Mojoman OP Jul 25, 2018

Read my proposal again. I’m obviously not saying that you would keep your high salary living in the crappy Bay Area. Instead, it would be appropriately adjusted for the county that you choose to live in, but the end result would be that you would be “king“ of the locality, and be able to afford a way above median house, without having to overbid for it due to the competition, and without having to endure a crappy commute.

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Xhsrvhyds Jul 25, 2018

The point is they wouldn't pay close even with that distance.

Credit Karma JaneSez Jul 25, 2018

Opening the door to amend your salary to a cost of living within a certain radius means Fresno wages. No thanks!

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Mojoman OP Jul 25, 2018

A good employer who wants to maximize their own runway to achieve a goal is not going to completely stiff you. If you want to live in Fresno, all the more power to you. But let’s say you want to live in San Diego where wages or 20% lower than the bay area. Imagine you making 20% less - you would still be able to afford a nice house in San Diego.

Credit Karma JaneSez Jul 25, 2018

Fair point

Apple WhyMee Jul 25, 2018

My employer allows something similar. I have two employees in my team who enjoy this flexibility. One works from Denver and the other from Seattle. Both fly to Bay Area every alternate week and stay for 3 days.

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Mojoman OP Jul 25, 2018

I did not realize that Apple was so flexible! Is the employee paying for their own transportation or is Apple covering it? Are they in a non-core engineering role? My experience in talking to other friends at Apple is that they have to come into the office. The only remote roles allowed are those customer service roles

Apple WhyMee Jul 25, 2018

They pay for their own transport. Turns out that it is much cheaper for them to fly to Bay Area and live in those cities in good school districts than to live here. I had gone over the math with them on this. They are hard core tech guys and are not into any customer service stuff. It is just that they are individual contributors and do not intend to take up any management roles. So it works for them.

Apple JohnyH1v3 Jul 29, 2018

The only problems with this approach is that companies will keep hoarding offices in the Bay Area, while employees move to other cities. Restaurants, schools, salons, etc will soon start closing down and their employees will lose their jobs. We’ll soon be the Detroit of the West. My suggestion would be to allow employees to work for 2 days a week mandatorily from home, as a first step, so we could ease the traffic situation. Each Company should have a different wfh day in the week. It would up to employees to decide if they wish to move out of the Bay Area and fly in 3 days a week.

LinkedIn Cjir28 Jan 29, 2019

I also like this idea but why scale down salary? I don't agree with the idea that if the same person is worth $xxx salary in the bay area, why would he/she be worth less anywhere else if their performance and contributions to the company/business remains the same?