I think it’s probably easier to directly find which cities have the highest salaries for your line of work, than to research which have the highest cost-of-living and hope that this correlates with a high salary for your line of work.
I don’t know how the cost-of-living calculator works, but I suspect if it gives that large of a difference it’s taking a multiplier (e.g. cost of living in Manhattan is 2x cost of living in Houston). If the market is efficient, cost-of-living differences should be additive, and hence not nearly that large. This is substantiated by this completely uncontrolled correlational study in a news article (sorry) in which the difference between cities looks more constant than proportional (e.g. if median starting pay differs by 5k, then so does median mid-career pay).
The other large thing this neglects is remote jobs, which give you the best of both worlds—salary adjusted for high CoL, but low expenses for yourself. One engineer at my company lives in Montana. He makes a Silicon Valley salary and the mortgage on his three-bedroom house on multiple acres is around what I’m paying for half a bedroom in Berkeley.
I think it’s probably easier to directly find which cities have the highest salaries for your line of work, than to research which have the highest cost-of-living and hope that this correlates with a high salary for your line of work.
This seems right to me. While I like the original post, I think it makes the point seem more counterintuitive than it needs to be. Compare with:
Should you move to a city where you can earn more? Sadly cost of living will typically increase, but for people who are donating or saving a lot, this will be outweighed by the additional earnings.
Remote jobs give you the best of both worlds: salary adjusted for high CoL, but low expenses for yourself. One engineer at my company lives in Montana. He makes a Silicon Valley salary...
I had the impression (probably from discussion on HN) that at least in programming working remotely means making substantially less money. This might be only true at the high end: companies who pay the most generally don’t hire remote workers.
It wouldn’t be too hard to find out, though: apply to a bunch of jobs on WeWorkRemotely.
The other large thing this neglects is remote jobs
She notes that “if you can work remotely or your salary is fixed, it’s probably good to be where living costs are low”, though this remark appears under the “Build a movement” section, rather than the “Donate more” section.
I think it’s probably easier to directly find which cities have the highest salaries for your line of work, than to research which have the highest cost-of-living and hope that this correlates with a high salary for your line of work.
I don’t know how the cost-of-living calculator works, but I suspect if it gives that large of a difference it’s taking a multiplier (e.g. cost of living in Manhattan is 2x cost of living in Houston). If the market is efficient, cost-of-living differences should be additive, and hence not nearly that large. This is substantiated by this completely uncontrolled correlational study in a news article (sorry) in which the difference between cities looks more constant than proportional (e.g. if median starting pay differs by 5k, then so does median mid-career pay).
The other large thing this neglects is remote jobs, which give you the best of both worlds—salary adjusted for high CoL, but low expenses for yourself. One engineer at my company lives in Montana. He makes a Silicon Valley salary and the mortgage on his three-bedroom house on multiple acres is around what I’m paying for half a bedroom in Berkeley.
This seems right to me. While I like the original post, I think it makes the point seem more counterintuitive than it needs to be. Compare with:
Should you move to a city where you can earn more? Sadly cost of living will typically increase, but for people who are donating or saving a lot, this will be outweighed by the additional earnings.
I had the impression (probably from discussion on HN) that at least in programming working remotely means making substantially less money. This might be only true at the high end: companies who pay the most generally don’t hire remote workers.
It wouldn’t be too hard to find out, though: apply to a bunch of jobs on WeWorkRemotely.
She notes that “if you can work remotely or your salary is fixed, it’s probably good to be where living costs are low”, though this remark appears under the “Build a movement” section, rather than the “Donate more” section.
The market is not efficient when it comes to where people live.