In London it is more like 80%
Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent
11–20 of 288 posts
Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent
#12That's ok. When Airbnb, Square, and Stripe IPO in 12-36 months, all of the people currently flooding into SF to work for them will surely be able to sell their pre-IPO shares to ... Well, I don't know, honestly. I doubt that employee #1000 at Square would even be able to pay the down payment on a SF condo with their earnings. Also, just FYI: Seattle isn't that much cheaper than SF, the people are way meaner, traffic…
Seattle is way, way cheaper, the people seem nice to me, and we've had like 9 months of sun, so much so that we were declared officially in drought.
Just saying. Might not be Seattle that's the problem.
As to traffic, I commute via boat, which is rad, since there are dolphins and orcas sometimes. Seriously!
Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent
#13Seriously, the number of companies still not hiring remotes is ridiculous. We work in the most flexible industry out there yet most companies still want you sitting in a chair in some downtown office of a giant and expensive city. No thank you. No you don't need to make your entire team remote but you can easily augment a large portion with talented remotes. Keep your high living costs and horrendous commutes, been there done that. There are other options.
Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent
#14Which is silly....honestly companies need to start opening offices in more affordable areas. Colorado (Blouder, Denver, The Springs), Texas (Austin, San Antonio), Missouri (Kansas City, Saint Louis)....there are so many places you can put your employees that saves them money as well as your company a lot of money not only in Salaries because you'll be able to employees less but your rent/power/etc.
The problem is they explicitly had to create something like Bay Area.
They needed the engineers to be @ place. And the same can happen anywhere if you recreate the Bay Area.
Solution: remote work
Honestly...160k salaries for some sw roles are silly. But there is need for them because the costs of living are so high. That's plain bs.
Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent
#15Employees at these companies don't mind paying 50% of their salary for rent because their salary is at most only 60% of their total compensation. Lot of people are getting 1M + deals paid out over 4 years.
Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent
#16That's ok. When Airbnb, Square, and Stripe IPO in 12-36 months, all of the people currently flooding into SF to work for them will surely be able to sell their pre-IPO shares to ... Well, I don't know, honestly. I doubt that employee #1000 at Square would even be able to pay the down payment on a SF condo with their earnings. Also, just FYI: Seattle isn't that much cheaper than SF, the people are way meaner, traffic…
Seattle is way, way cheaper, the people seem nice to me, and we've had like 9 months of sun, so much so that we were declared officially in drought. Just saying. Might not be Seattle that's the problem. As to traffic, I commute via boat, which is rad, since there are dolphins and orcas sometimes. Seriously!
ssh! You're not supposed to tell!
Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent
#17Which is silly....honestly companies need to start opening offices in more affordable areas. Colorado (Blouder, Denver, The Springs), Texas (Austin, San Antonio), Missouri (Kansas City, Saint Louis)....there are so many places you can put your employees that saves them money as well as your company a lot of money not only in Salaries because you'll be able to employees less but your rent/power/etc.
I am spending 50% of my after-tax income on rent. The 50% I have remaining is more in SF than what I was making in Phoenix or Little Rock or Lincoln.
The amount of choice in employer I have as an individual is also much greater here.
Still, I'll probably head back to one of those "small" towns soon. Not really worth it here for me personally, despite the employer-choice and the $.
Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent
#18This article makes the rather flawed assumption that all the housing in SF is being taken up by people who work at startups, and not by people who work at Facebook/Google but live in the city and commute, who likely are both more numerous and have even greater salaries.
The article doesn't mention studio prices at all, which are high but not stupid high.
Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent
#19Or you know, if it bothers you then find a job elsewhere. A mass exodus will help reduce rents and/or raise wages.
Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent
#20Always remember the #1 industry sector in CA is real estate, not tech. Furthermore, this is why I generally won't consider offers for work in the Bay area (as much as I love NoCal). I do the math and realize I'm cutting my own throat.
On the other hand, I'd love to get a great offer and then buy a Blue Bird bus and convert it into a rolling home but only if I could semi-permanently park it in the company parking lot!