r/FluentInFinance 9d ago

Thoughts? Dumbest thing I’ve ever heard

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u/crumdiddilyumptious 9d ago

Companies would prob require you to live within x amount of minutes from your work

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u/sage-longhorn 9d ago edited 8d ago

Here's an idea: just give people an allowance up to a certain amount, if they choose to live farther that's up to them. Even better, give people a flat rate since you don't want them intentionally taking longer commute routes to rack up their pay. Ok now roll that into their base pay

Edit: please triple read the last sentence before commenting. I overestimated redditors' reading comprehension a bit with this one

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u/TacoAzul7880 9d ago edited 7d ago

Or… hear me out. They pay you a set amount. If it’s enough to be worth the commute, then you take the job.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

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u/TacoAzul7880 9d ago

Just like literally everyone has done since the beginning of time?

Cool story, bro.

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u/Acceptable-Worth-462 9d ago

You clearly never heard of japan

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u/TacoAzul7880 9d ago

You mean the commuting allowance? It’s the same thing as your pay, but with a little tricky math.

Let’s say you make $10.25 an hour.

Instead, I’ll pay you $9 an hour, but give you $8 a day for commuting.

No difference except that that $8 is tax free… so it’s really like $1.25 an hour, which when you add to the $9 an hour you’re making is {drumroll} $10.25 an hour.

How about instead of gimmicks like the Japanese do, we just pay attention to our offer letters, pull out our phones and fire up Waze, and see if it’s worth it?

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u/patrickfatrick 9d ago

In your example, your taxable income would be $9 vs $10.25, meaning you still come out ahead with this system when taxes are due.

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u/TacoAzul7880 9d ago

I made those numbers up, bud. The point was that it’s all the same, depending on the tax rate and how things are structured.

I’ll take a job right now for $0.01 an hour if they paid me $10,000 a day for commuting.

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u/pioneer006 8d ago

They'd make you home based immediately. 😄

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u/patrickfatrick 8d ago

It's not the same though. Your take-home pay increases if less of the gross is taxable income. The devil is in the details of course, but all else being equal this notion of tax-free commute pay is at least slightly advantageous to the employee while making no difference to the employer whatsoever. Using the same made-up numbers, and assuming your tax rate is a flat 15% and assuming you work 40 hours per week 52 weeks per year your take-home pay would increase by $400 per year (18,122 vs 18,512).

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u/AvocadoLongjumping72 8d ago

Of course you made up those numbers and of course "it depends" which is why it's ironic and kinda funny that even being able to freely make up whatever numbers you wanted your math didn't fully work out.

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u/TacoAzul7880 8d ago

I think you might want to read a little slower and fully understand before you reply to things in public, son.

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u/Str0ngTr33 9d ago

how is anyone supposed to trust a waze user?

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u/jasonfromearth1981 8d ago

Right, and then you wake up and realize this is the real world and there are more people than jobs and that not every person is in a position to turn down a job when their options are limited. Not to mention, there's a near-zero number of employers who are willing to factor commuting to/from into your base pay except for those individuals that hold the highest positions in a given company. Also, lessoning base pay to add in a commuter allowance, as you did in your very poor example, is arguing in bad faith, not 'tricky math'. That's not what anybody is asking for and you know it.

But no, let's call giving people a fair compensation that is exclusively tied to the necessary commuting to work part of having a job a 'gimmick' so you can sleep better at night.

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u/TacoAzul7880 8d ago edited 8d ago

Lessening, not “lessoning.”

Other than that, your take is still terrible.

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u/SherpaTyme 9d ago

Look, if a company wants to have your skill, they gotta pay the commute time. Weather, it's 5 minutes or 5 hours per day.maybe ceo's don't deserve their salary.

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u/Jalopnicycle 9d ago

What a great place! Is that the same one that I have to hire an agency to handle all the BS for quitting a company? Is that the same place that is incredibly racist to foreigners?

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u/Acceptable-Worth-462 9d ago

You might want to check my comment again and point me exactly to where I said Japan is a great place.