- give equal pay for equal work;
- encourage remote work if it is possible and productive;
- let workers choose where to live.
Remote work benefits employer (lower office costs), employee (time/cost/stress of commuting) and environment (pollution).
These simple rules help to establish freer, more independent markets for labor, commercial real estate, residential property and various transport modalities.
Cross subsidies by employers for high CoL just perpetuates the existing inbalances, and most of the benefits go direct to landlords.
The result, compared to mass commuting into expensive cities, would be:
- slighty lower wages in general, sharply lower for some bubble cities (SV, SF, London...);
- cheaper offices, both less space required and lower cost/area, some businesses move out of the cities;
- convergence of residential property prices across cities, suburbs and remote locations;
- lower rents for low-paid non-remotable essential workers in cities;
- much reduced economic waste on commuting, including less congestion for those that must travel;
- reducing inequality across towns, cities and countries.
There would be capital losses for speculative CRE and residential property investors.