Luring Remote Workers
Tags: Withoutborders, Digital Nomads, Moving, Travel, Remote Work

Luring Remote Workers

Image from pixabay.com

Across America remote workers are being lured away from the nation’s largest metropolitan cities. Some cities have been doing this for well over a year now, seeking to stop the increasing yearly exodus of its educated population, whereas others have started doing this as a result of COVID-19 and a need to inject their communities with more cash. As more and more workers go digital, will they choose to make their home elsewhere? While we consider this question, let’s consider three places looking for remote workers.

Tulsa Remote

Initially started in 2018 before the pandemic, Tulsa Remote offers $10,000 over a period of one year through the George Kaiser Family Foundation. Remote workers dismayed that monthly rent has shot through the roof in recent years will find such a place to be more attractive than, say, New York City or San Francisco. In Oklahoma Tulsans can boast that its average monthly rent price is $746 in comparison with $1,743 in Honolulu, $3,111 in San Francisco, and $3,185 in Boston.

Movers & Shakas

The word shaka sounds like a mystical medicine man to a person like me who is ignorant of Hawaiian culture. The shaka, however, is a symbolic gesture Hawaiians make to express the meaning of “hang loose.” Hawaii recently started a new program called Movers & Shakas in which the selected applicant’s flight is not only paid for, but she will receive special discounts from hotels, restaurants, and co-working spaces. Accepted applicants are required to do a few hours of volunteer work and learn about the local culture. As indicated above the cost of living there remains the highest in the nation, making an increasing number of Hawaiian residents miserable. As of 2020 Hawaii is ranked the worst place to make a living. In addition to attracting remote workers that have never been to Hawaii, they are looking to attract remote workers that have left the island for the mainland in order to work at big tech companies.

Work in Anchorage, Alaska

Alaska would like to remind remote workers that although they do not pay them to move there through any remote worker program, they do have an annual dividend ranging from $900 to $2000 that every resident of the state receives. Pristine mountain trails and other outdoor activities will help keep remote workers active and provide an escape from city life, which are experiences they might not get in cities like LA. Just like the places mentioned above, Anchorage features its own co-working spaces too.

Conclusion

The move to capture the hearts and pockets of remote workers is a trend I am just starting to notice. Tulsa Remote received thousands of applications last time I checked, so it is highly unlikely applicants will be chosen for it. At the moment and for the foreseeable future Hawaii remains too overpriced for any long-term stay in my book. Applicants need to make over $100,000 a year to live comfortably in Honolulu. Out of the three states mentioned above, Alaska appears to be the most attractive to me with its annual dividend, gorgeous landscape, and affordable cost of living.