Would you follow your job given these circumstances?

[skyking]

"San Francisco is a much better place to live than Houston."
EDIT: I know it is DC and Atlanta, just quoting the original post🙂
That is more important than the cost, IMO. If it was a craphole with high costs, no raise would do it. I value my time away from work very highly, and also realize that I am living for now. Later on, I may be too stove up from arthritis or die from cancer or some other freaking thing, life is just that way.

I see people at the hospital all the time, with good eating habits, excersise habits, financial security, and they are dying too young just like the poor, the clueless, the inept, the lazy.

Live for today, and quit squeezing the almighty dollar. If it makes you happy, take a functional paycut to keep doing the job you really like.
Getting to live somehere that really interests you is a bonus itself.
Bargain for the biggest possible raise you can, but do what makes you happy from day to day.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

will the job be in dc proper? if it is in NOVA, there are some more affordable living options out west/north west. it wont be as cheap as atlanta by anymeans, but it would be more reasonable. as always, the more of a commute you are willing to put up with the less you will pay. housing market has been bananas around here for a while, but has slowed down as of late

 

[ahurtt]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile

Originally posted by: talyn00
Would they cover relocation expenses?? I would ask for a cost of living increase, 35% sounds like quite alot, ask for a lower amount.

Coverage for relocation expenses is probable but not certain.

The real cities are Atlanta to DC.

WTF man why did you give all the mumbo-jumbo hypothetical situation fake cities and crap man. . .? Why didn't you just say it to begin with?

 

[ahurtt]

Originally posted by: Connoisseur

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile

Originally posted by: talyn00
Would they cover relocation expenses?? I would ask for a cost of living increase, 35% sounds like quite alot, ask for a lower amount.

Coverage for relocation expenses is probable but not certain.

The real cities are Atlanta to DC.

GT, if you're looking to move to DC look in the suburban areas of Maryland (ex. Springfield) that lie just outside of DC. They have a pretty efficient train system down there that can get you in and out pretty quickly. You might be able to get much lower rates for housing, food etc. if you don't actually live in the city.

Wrong, housing prices all around DC within any reasonable driving or daily commuting distance are inflated through the roof right now. There is no cheap decent housing anywhere around DC unless you want to live in a total slum. We are already too crowded up here and the DC area traffic is ranked 2nd worst in the nation. We don't want any more people up here. Stay in Atlanta.

 

[MixMasterTang]

Without knowing your Salary it's impossible to tell. Like someone said if you are making 100,000 a year a 35% increase would be a 35,000 dollar raise, but if you are making only 40,000 then a 35% raise would be 14,000. So if you are at the lower end of the scale and they don't want to give you much of a raise I'd say screw 'em (even though I voted for you to move), but if you are at the upper end of that spectrum then I'd be satisfied with a 10% (10,000) dollar raise.

 

[vi edit]

You've got to put some perspective on this.

35% is a pretty flat statistic. If you are making $10 and go up to $13.50 an hour to the company that isn't much of financial strain over the course of a year. That's an extra $7000.

But if you are making $30 an hour and are now going up to $40+ an hour that's over $20,000 a year. That's approaching a high paying part time/low paying full time job there.

And it just gets more expensive the more you make per hour.

I'd ask for full moving expenses to be paid for, and a reasonable standard of living adjustment.

You just can't slap a 35% number on there and call it a day. If you are making $10 in one place, yeh you might need to make $13.50 to stay even in another. (35%)

But if you are making $60,000 in one place, you might only need $65,000 or $70,000 to remain even (around 10% increase).

Once you hit a certain level of income, the major increases in living kind of flatten out. There's a much larger "hump" to overcome the lower your income.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
will the job be in dc proper? if it is in NOVA, there are some more affordable living options out west/north west. it wont be as cheap as atlanta by anymeans, but it would be more reasonable. as always, the more of a commute you are willing to put up with the less you will pay. housing market has been bananas around here for a while, but has slowed down as of late

Job will be located in downtown DC. I currently share a 2-bed/2-bath place here in Atlanta and my half is around $600/month. My mom lives in DC, in a downtown studio, for $940/month. If I live downtown, I would likely sell my Mazda 3 but maybe keep my 1992 Miata.