Hacker News Reader

Comment by buboard | Hacker News Reader

If anything remote workers should be paid more for being environmentally friendly

They are, in a way, given that they'll spend less on tax than their commuting colleagues - assuming that taxes are used as a method for government to incentivise behaviour.

Mr Money Mustache (MMM) estimated that you saved something like $700 bucks per mile per year you don't drive.

I've been remote for ~5 years, haven't owned a car for ~3, and I've saved a bunch of money. Uber and public transit handle most of my needs, and even after monthly passes and uber surge rates I estimate I save close to $500-600 USD a month in car payment/insurance/maintenance.

The main downside is that I'm in Canada, and being carless in the winter can get ugly.

How does that add up? So if I don't drive 1000 miles in a year, I have an extra $700K?

Where will the extra money come from ?

Saved real estate cost for one less desk at the office, productivity gains [1].

That said, companies that are fully remote (e.g. Gitlab [2]) tend to actually adjust your wage for having similar purchasing power wherever you choose to live. This then encourages the company to hire from inexpensive countries, which has it's own pros and cons.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/abdullahimuhammed/2019/05/21/he...

[2] https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/global-c...

There are costs associated with working in an office - consider rent, cleaning, furniture, power, a receptionist, maybe an entire facilities management department, security and so on. These costs are split amongst the revenue earned per worker in that office. But homeworkers provide all those things for the company “for free”. And even more the homeworker might even provide the PC, the phone line, any tech support they need, all “for free” from the perspective of the company beancounters. In a fair world homeworkers would be paid this differential.

Both remote employers I've had so far have paid me a monthly lump sum for my internet connection (covering more than the actual costs). And I've always had a company PC. You're right about rent etc. though.

Yes that is true. Except for the cases when workers already _start_ the job as remote. In such cases these costs are never created and therefore never avoided.

You should also consider that the costs you've outlined are not paid "per headcount" but rather collectively for the company / per company site. This means that often the company would need to completely disimss the office location or move to a smaller location.

I do not disagree with you, I'm just showing that money are not some magical points that you allocate with everything else falling into place.

they save the company a ton

Reply on news.ycombinator.com