Let’s say someone here in san diego works remotely and gets the offer for $225k versus say a $135k pay for doing something equivalently paid here in san diego. How does this difference really make.
Well forget about the stock grants and health, etc benefits for comparison….
With 401k match, that’s 5% of the annual salary. So for the bay area remote job, that’s $236.25k/year.
For the san diego local wage company, with a 5% match, that’s $136.5k/year
Thats roughly 1.73:1 ….
Working at the bay area remote job for 6 years is equivalent to working at the san diego job for 10.4 years. You’re basically shaving 4 1/2 years off working for someone to achieve the same financial state as someone that puts in 10.4 years.
You’re a lot less likely to get laidoff within 6 years of an high tech job versus being around the block for 10+ years…And even if you get laidoff at the 6 years mark, you still have a 4 year advantage to figure out what next to do versus the locally SD paid person.
Of course this doesn’t consider the different tax rate of say someone grossing $236k versus $130k, and so that does make a difference too.
But at the flip side to this is, if you’re earning $236k here versus $130k, you’re also in a much better position to obtain home ownership a lot earlier, and capping your living expenses earlier…
