Comment by mr_tristan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mr_tristan | Hacker News Reader

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And this is why tech jobs are going to continue to lead the charge to being mostly remote workers. Major tech hubs are crazy expensive, and the jobs are pretty amenable to remote work.

At some point, there's going to be another inflection point where a lot of people making comfortable upper middle-class incomes move out to, well, anywhere. Basically, someone's going to do the math, and recognize that remote workers are just as productive, and are a little cheaper then having a bunch of 20-somethings in the office physically. And the incentive for anyone who wants to have kids to work remote is just going to be really, really high.

We may also see more software engineers sticking around as engineers instead of becoming managers as well. Because the incentive to grow your income via management may be relieved.

I think it's investors holding up the movement at this point. I usually see most tech guys are mentally prepared for this shift, but finance guys are strongly opposed.

Well, there are a lot of complicating factors in the US when a remote worker moves out of state.

Health care seems to be a big one. Few HR departments are frequently equipped to provide another kind of health-care package, and health care expensive, heavily subsidized by many tech companies, negotiated because of bulk sales, etc.

Depending on the business, the company might actually be subject to massive sales taxes as well if they employ someone out of state. Some states, like CA, have enacted rather byzantine sales tax laws, such that if you were, say, a company in Idaho, and someone wanted to move to CA, you'd all of a sudden have a "presence" in the state and be subject to more taxes.

These are just off the top of my head. So basically, unless the CEO wants it prioritized, I suspect the "finance guys" are actually just identifying real costs. So I wouldn't expect remote work to just jump wholesale nationwide without some real infrastructure in place. In any case, the silicon valley area sure seems to have some pretty stark incentives for prioritizing remote work. I'd expect the issues with remote work to be ironed out faster then say, a massive wage raise or controlled real estate costs.

Any thoughts on why?

"Tech people" usually don't think outside of the context of producing code.

Good foresight.

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