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I’m starting to look for a job again now and it’s looking like it may be more likely that the type of position I’m now considering could put me into a situation where I’m traveling into the city routinely for work, even if my office is technically here on Long Island. I may be expected to be supervising work in the city 3 or 4 days a week if it’s a big project.
Thus far in the 3 years that I’ve been living here on Long Island I’ve lived in Kings Park and worked in Western Suffolk or near the Nassau border and had a reasonable commute up to 45 min. or so. I have had to work in the city some here and there, but it was few and far between.
However, if I get one of these jobs that take me into the city regularly, that’s a pretty big change in transportation cost and commute time. It’s $405 for a monthly LIRR pass, and probably a 2 hr commute one way to take the LIRR in then jump on a subway or take an Uber to a job site. Even if I can expense it, 4 hours of commuting a day and getting up at 5:30 and not being home til 7 is kind of a quality of life difference.
So here’s what I’m wondering.
What’s the minimum salary you’d accept to live on LI and work in the city for an experienced professional job?
Or if you had to put a dollar figure on a raise to make that same transition, what would it be? $10k - $15k?
I’ve made mid to high 80k since I’ve lived here and I kinda feel like I need to be at $100k at least to feel like it’s “worth it”, and I’d really prefer to be working on LI if I could. Just trying to get a feeling for whether or not this is a reasonable expectation.
There is no Job or salary that would have me do 4 hours of commuting every day. None. My time, health and sanity is worth too much!
I'd normally agree with you, but this may be one of the few industries that are going to see an uptick right now and could be hiring. I may not have a lot of other options relevant to my experience.
You’d do all that commuting for a $10-20K bump? Kind of sad when you think about it, as half of that increase will be eaten up by commuting and lunch costs in NYC.
30k min if I can walk from a Lirr stop. 60k starting if I have to get on a subway. I have worked in the city for the last 9-10 years. I have the rule of 1. I take one mode of transportation after my car that’s not my legs, I don’t bother. If I was you it would be more. I’m in western Suffolk but take a train from Nassau as it’s same distance to my Suffolk train by car and cheaper fare with more service.
You’d do all that commuting for a $10-20K bump? Kind of sad when you think about it, as half of that increase will be eaten up by commuting and lunch costs in NYC.
It sucks but pretty much yes if I have to. I figure $15-$20k would absorb at least the travel cost and give me somewhat of a pay raise for the misery of the commute.
To elaborate on my background a bit I was doing Engineering and Design work. I'm considering going after Project Management work for Construction or Arch Millwork companies, hence the need to be on site in the city a lot. I have 2 yrs of Project Management experience so I'd be a more junior hire, I don't think it would be realistic to ask $125k or so based on my resume. I've got 16 yrs of experience so I'm definitely not entry level, but I'm not in a bit I'm not in finance, stock trading, coding, upper management, or something else high earning that would let me "call my shots" here.
I think $100k is about the reasonable floor for me to make this change, just hoping to get some validation that I'm not selling myself too short here.
I do a similar commute currently (not as long) 30min in the morning and 1.5hrs during evening rush hour (driving). I wouldn’t do my commute let alone yours for anything less than $200k. In my opinion, a $100k is obtainable in my field in many other states so the commute wouldn’t be worthwhile but everyone’s situation is different. I will say that you eventually get used to the daily grind and routine.
30k min if I can walk from a Lirr stop. 60k starting if I have to get on a subway. I have worked in the city for the last 9-10 years. I have the rule of 1. I take one mode of transportation after my car that’s not my legs, I don’t bother. If I was you it would be more. I’m in western Suffolk but take a train from Nassau as it’s same distance to my Suffolk train by car and cheaper fare with more service.
I"m doing same. How far do you drive to get to your nassau station? Finding too much traffic lately.
I do a similar commute currently (not as long) 30min in the morning and 1.5hrs during evening rush hour (driving). I wouldn’t do my commute let alone yours for anything less than $200k. In my opinion, a $100k is obtainable in my field in many other states so the commute wouldn’t be worthwhile but everyone’s situation is different. I will say that you eventually get used to the daily grind and routine.
LIRR ::: I actually enjoy the time to read, catch up, work, relax before and after work.
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