Remote work is now the hottest ‘city’ for high-paying jobs

For the first time there are more remote high-paying job openings than in S.F.

Workers hoping to relocate for a high-paying job may need to look no further than their kitchen table, living room couch or home office thanks to a proliferation of fully remote and highly lucrative new positions, a significant sign that a COVID-induced move toward work from home is here to stay.

There are currently 80,360 openings for jobs paying $100,000 or more that are fully remote on Ladders, a job search website focused on positions paying six figures in the U.S. and Canada. That’s more than in any one actual city, outpacing San Francisco with 68,777 openings and New York with 64,681 positions. The only other California city on the top 15 list, Los Angeles, has 34,965 openings.

“Two years ago remote would not have made the top 50 list, so it’s an enormous change,” Ladders CEO Marc Cenedella said. “This is really the biggest shift in how we work since the invention of the automobile.”

The move toward more remote work is here to stay, Cenedella said, enabled by technology such as Zoom videoconferencing, Slack and Microsoft Teams messaging and Google Workspace collaboration tools. COVID forced a move to remote work in many industries — although not

for many of the most highrisk essential jobs — which showed companies and their employees work from home was a feasible option.

“Now that we’ve learned that we can work remote we’re not going back,” Cenedella said. “People are voting with their butts and they want to keep their butts in their seats at home.”

The move to remote work has lead some companies to offer lower wages for some positions to account for a lower cost of living, but that’s a trend Cenedella expects won’t last. If Facebook won’t pay San Francisco wages for a talented engineer in Idaho, some other company will and eventually the competition will bring salaries back up to par, he said.

Regardless of pay, remote work comes with multiple benefits for employees, starting with ditching a costly or time-consuming commute. Workers can also have more flexibility to create a daily schedule that better fits their needs, starting earlier in the day or working into the evening to fit in family obligations or personal preferences. After all, remote work means employees are judged based on their actual output, not how much face time they can get with the boss in the office, Cenedella said.

All those benefits are not just theoretical for Cenedella. Ladders has been fully remote during the pandemic and Cenedella, who is normally based in New York but was visiting his in-laws in California, doesn’t expect his company will be going back to in-person.

“As I’m talking to you right now my 5-year-old daughter came in and wants a hug,” he said. “I’m working and hugging at the same time.”