In findings that will surprise very few, a study commissioned by the apartment search company RadPad and recruiting service Anthology says that making rent is tough even for well-paid tech engineers. Specifically, the study looked at what engineers at places like Uber, Airbnb, Square, Google, and Salesforce make and how much of their after-tax salaries they have to shell out to live close to their offices (they used the median one-bedroom prices within a .5 mile radius of company headquarters). They detail their findings in a graphic (see above) and in a blog provocatively titled: "Employees are paying THIS much to live next to unicorns in SF?"
Here are some of the statistics unearthed in the study:
-With the median 1-bedroom rent around Airbnb's 888 Brannan St. headquarters coming in at $3,395 per month and the average mid-senior level engineer taking home $120,000, employees there are spending 54 percent of their monthly take-home income on rent.
-Employees at Square and Stripe aren't faring well either, with workers spending 53.7 percent and 52 percent of their respective monthly paychecks if they want to live near the home office.
-Workers at Google and Twitter are reportedly paid more, so they are doing better. Google engineers make $160,000 and their counterparts at Twitter make $150,000; which means Googlers would pay 42 percent of their monthly income to lease a 1-bedroom near the SoMa headquarters and Twitter workers would pay 43 percent for the same set-up.
-The study suggests engineers look farther south for a better savings—noting that their counterparts in Southern California ( Silicon Beach and Hawthorne in Los Angeles County) take home less per month, but spend less on apartments near work.
Given that RadPad is located in Los Angeles, perhaps that last point is subtle hint or an invitation?
· Employees are paying THIS much to live next to unicorns in SF? [RadPad]
· More cost-of-living studies on Curbed [Curbed SF]
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