Consider this common scenario faced by many employees: Your supervisor calls you into her office on a Friday afternoon and asks you to transfer to the New Jersey office. She says the new job includes a $10,000 increase in salary, and loads of potential "in the future." She gives you the weekend to think about it. What do you say? No doubt, a million questions start popping into your head. You've heard New Jersey is expensive to live in. Is $10,000 enough? How much are the houses? What will your property taxes be? What about income taxes? What about your wife's job? Will the kids like it there? Will you like the new job? What is the impact on your career if you refuse the job transfer?
According to psychologists relocation is among the most stressful events that can happen to a person, or a family. Changing jobs, which often occurs when relocating, is also high on the stress index. For many people the decision to relocate involves a complex set of variables of a financial, personal and emotional nature. These factors contribute to the stress in varying degrees, depending upon the individuals involved. The questions above can be broken down into two broad categories: objective and subjective. The emotional and personal aspects of relocation are subjective and thus difficult to model. Fortunately this is not true of the financial ramifications, which are more objective and easier to quantify. This article will discuss many of the financial variables which should be considered by employers and employees before a relocation decision is made.
When deciding on compensation packages for transferred employees, employers often do not consider that each employee is an individual, with unique financial considerations. No two families are alike and a relocation analysis must reflect differences in income tax brackets, housing size, property taxes, spousal income, dependents, etc. Using generic cost of living indices does not produce an accurate calculation of the financial impact of relocating. Using only a customized analysis will produce a true apples to apples comparison. The battle cry of the relocating employee is "AT LEAST KEEP ME WHOLE." In other words, the employee should not have to relocate, absorb the emotional stress, and lose money as well. The after tax cash flow should be at least zero.
An accurate, individualized, analysis has other benefits for the employer. These are:
If the employee is presently living in a high cost of living area, and the employee is moving out of this area to a lower cost of living area the analysis will most likely show a positive cash flow, which will encourage the employee to relocate.
Employers in low cost areas will find the analysis useful in encouraging employees to transfer into the area from higher cost of living areas, since the analysis will probably show a positive cash flow. Lower salaries can be justified, and demonstrated to the employee, thus saving expenses.
Employers in high cost of living areas can use the analysis for employees moving into the area, from lower cost areas, when cost of living concerns are negatively impacting the relocation decision, and there is a resistance to relocation. An analysis may convince the reluctant employee that the after tax cash flow isn't as bad as they thought. Often, reluctant employees must relocate to high cost areas for career advancement purposes, but want just compensation, calculated in gross salary dollars. A confidential analysis will show an employer how much the employee should be equitably paid, to compensate for cost of living differences.
Employers can use the analysis to make sure employees are comparing apples to apples in their relocation decision. Many employees attempt to upgrade their standard of living, usually through unfair housing and community comparisons, at the employer's expense.
