Cities such as New York, San Francisco and Seattle had higher wages compared to smaller regions within the US
Companies in America’s costliest cities are paying at least 40 per cent more for most white-collar jobs than the average wage in other US regions, according to Upwork, a global freelancing platform.
But the remote-work trend, accelerated by Covid-19, is likely to change that and potentially reshape the economy in the process, Upwork economist Adam Ozimek wrote in a report released Thursday.
Remote work “presents one of the first structural changes in the economy” to address the wide wage gap between two people doing the same job from different parts of the country, he said. That means companies can cut back on some labour costs while boosting pay for workers living in less-expensive areas.
When firms in the highest-priced cities hired workers living in cheaper towns, they tended to pay almost 19 per cent more than the person would earn locally, the report found.
