Henrik Costa· Reward Partner, Larkspur Manufacturing
Posted in New York Chapter ·
We have about 140 roles attached to our Midtown office where people come in three days a week, and a growing number who were hired remote in 2021 and now live in New Jersey, Connecticut or further out. Until now everyone has been priced to New York metro data.
Finance is asking why we pay a Manhattan premium to someone who commutes twice a month, and I have no good answer beyond inertia. Is anyone applying a different reference point to hybrid roles than to fully in-office ones, and what survey cut are you using to support it?
0 reactions · 4 replies · 6 views
HR Business Partner, Calibre Software
We price to the office the role is attached to, not where the person sleeps, as long as they are expected in at least two days a week. Below that they are classed as remote and move to a national structure, which for us sits about 8 to 10 percent under New York metro. The two-day line is arbitrary but it has been easy to explain.
HR Business Partner, Calibre Software
Media company, around 600 in the city. We tried a commuter-zone differential in 2024 and dropped it after a year. The saving was under 1 percent of payroll, and the manager time spent arguing about which side of a county line someone lived on was not worth it. Everyone within the tri-state area is now on the New York range.
Maya TanakaCRP
Sales Compensation Manager, Calibre Software
The survey cuts are the real problem. Most of what we get is by work location as reported by the employer, and employers report hybrid people against the office. So the New York metro number already includes plenty of people in your situation.
I told our finance team that the premium they want to remove is partly baked into the market data they are comparing against.
Maya TanakaCRP
Sales Compensation Manager, Calibre Software
Question back: what happens to someone already on the Manhattan range if you reclassify them? We grandfathered existing staff and applied the national range to new hires only, and eighteen months later we have people in the same team on ranges 9 percent apart. That is going to come up in our next pay equity review.
