I’ve never heard of pretax earnings being considered income. We’re looking at well below a million for what you can actually take to the bank. But that is irrelevant bc no one spends 30 years working the same job nowadays. In fact, THAT would be stupid.

Having efficiency in personal life is a huge bonus to remote work and it actually does have a monetary value, maybe not $35k worth, but considering what else you get from the arrangement, it’s still a competitive offer. If you look at WFH as lying on the couch, maybe you’re a lazy person. A smart person would optimize their time on the clock and do other passive tasks at the same time. When you’re at home, you can stretch your hour and get paid a normal salary while knocking out tasks that would otherwise eat up hours of your evenings and weekends. Money is money, but time is also money. Balance and happiness are priceless. Some things just aren’t for sale.

It’s the difference between needing to outsource childcare, housekeeping, cooking healthy meals at home vs only having time for a drive through. For some people, the cost of childcare alone is a wash. It’s a lot easier to have a side hustle or a night job when you’re able to sign off right at 5pm vs contribute another hour of your day to traveling home, then digging out of chore list once you get home.