The article I read said that they were going to give their current employees the opportunity to relocate. It did not specify if there was going to be a change in their income though.
I don't know about the US, but in France, in large urban areas like Lyon or Toulouse, you can easily find office space for 100 to 200 €/m²/year. Which means, translated in $, that $17k per year would grant you 75 to 150 m² (800 to 1600 sq. ft.).
That would be a very very nice office, far from the shoulder-to-shoulder openspace model, even if you add other expenses than pure rent :-)
Of course, in America rents in NYC and SF are going to drive up the averages by a lot, with companies like FB and Google willing to pay huge amounts for prime real estate and luxury build outs.
So the interesting question for you is: how much are rents in Paris, and how does that affect the averages of France as a whole?
Here’s an article from 5 years ago that showed a $10k per employee per year cost difference between NYC and Dallas. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-much-your-compan...
Keep in mind that office prices are going to vary wildly based on location. High rises in the downtown with good access to public transit are going to cost a lot more than an office park that’s just barely within city limits. So these averages per city are going to hide huge standards of deviation.
Haha, tech companies in the Bay Area use open office designs that pack people like sardines. Each employee probably gets closer to 30-50sqft.
Also, the company will be able to save more money since everything is cheaper from taxes to real estate in other states compared to California.