Nearly 40% of software engineers will only work remotely (2023)

Ohh I'll come back into the office for the right price.

Let's say I'm remote and making 140k. I can live wherever I want. If a recruiter was like "If you come to NYC we can hit 190k".

Think about it. After taxes that's a 25k increase. Rent will be an additional 2 to 3k a month over what I'm paying now. Plus I'm spending a minimum of 45 minutes each way commuting.

So I'm already losing money on this. At a certain point more money wouldn't even be worth it. I'd need an additional 50k take home for this to make sense, which due to how taxation works quickly prices me out the market.

Basically I have a WFH job and unless I got a ridiculous offer, I'm not giving it up. I imagine if I finally get a FAANG job with 300k TC I'd consider it.

Same boat here! :)

To put some less anecdotal data to this: an 80th percentile salary ask in our data set (from engs looking for jobs) is 33k higher [1] for an in-office job than it is for a remote one; a lot of those are people who already live in HCOL areas.

[1] https://www.otherbranch.com/blog/quantifying-the-cost-of-rto

not to even mention cost of living, which can be an enormous difference

Seems like the greater story is landlords taxing the economy to death.

It's also just freedom. For example I wanted to visit a few cities and see some concerts.

Had a great time doing it, and as long as I stay in the US it's not a problem.

I actually really like NYC, to visit! Best food on Earth.

A few years back I interviewed with a company that would let me work remotely anywhere on Earth ( with reasonable limits of course). It wouldn't of paid more that 120k, but I'd rather do that than make 200k in NYC.

Seems like supply and demand to me. Supply being artificially controlled.

I'd love to do the Doctor Evil gesture the next time a recruiter contacts me about their great onsite-only opportunity: "Yes, I would come back to the office for... <gesture> one MILLION dollars per year!"

Landlords are just like almost all the programmers reading this page, they want more money. The downstream consequences are secondary concerns at best,especially if it doesn't personally affect them.

Programmers generally don't have extractive power. They don't sell water, power, land, medicine, or legal defense. They live by pure appeal or die. For the above mentioned domains it's often the reverse; you pay or you die.

It's why the poor in the US have such a difference in life expectancy.

would you say that... rent seeking... is bad?

I think the opposite will happen.

Using your illustration … “market rate for your position is $190k, but since we’re hiring remote - that means we can also hire someone in a developing country for 1/5th the cost.”

Great for people in developing countries.

Bad for those who were already highly paid.