Gegli news - Smaller Cities Are Paying Tech Workers to Abandon Silicon Valley

Gegli news - Smaller Cities Are Paying Tech Workers to Abandon Silicon Valley - 7/25/2022 8:08:14 PM 8:08:14 PM 

A growing number of cities and towns all over the U.S. are handing out cash

 

A growing number of cities and towns all over the U.S. are handing out cash grants and other perks aimed at drawing skilled employees of faraway companies to live there and work remotely.⁠
A handful of such programs have existed for years, but they have started gaining traction during the pandemic. In October there were at least 24 such programs in the U.S. Today there are 71, according to MakeMyMove, which is contracted by cities and towns to set up such programs.⁠
Because these programs specifically target remote workers who have high wages, a disproportionate share of those who are taking advantage of them work in tech. Companies whose employees have participated in one remote worker incentive program in Tulsa, Okla., include Adobe, Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, Dell, Meta, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Lyft, Netflix, Oracle and Siemens, according to a spokeswoman for the organization.⁠
Local governments are offering people willing to move up to $12,000 in cash, along with subsidized gym memberships, free babysitting and office space.⁠
Jason Mathew, pictured here, who was born and raised in New York City, is a product manager at IBM who has lived in nearly every increasingly unaffordable tech hub in the country, including San Francisco and Austin. To his surprise, he’s found Tulsa is where he belongs.⁠
Since moving there in 2020, Mathew has become a landlord of the four-unit apartment building where he lives, got voted vice president of his neighborhood community association and launched a side project in the form of a new startup and app.⁠
“What is keeping me here is the opportunity,” he says. “And the people.”⁠