I'd love to get a London job in the current environment and live in NI. I don't think anyone in my industry will ever be back in the office full time so I think in theory it should be possible and good for NI wages. My company has got rid of its belfast city centre office completely, we now have an office outside Belfast with only 25% capacity.
This is what prompted my question
I previously worked in a software developers in Belfast - good enough money, hours, perks etc
I moved home to west Tyrone & did the ~2.5-3 hour commute daily for a year - they talked about allowing WFH a few days but it never materialised, so I got fed up & moved to a local firm - 7 years ago now.
It wouldn't have all the perks of the previous job, or the salary I'd be on now if I'd stayed putt - but it was the right decision at the time to cut out that commute
Can't help but think it'd be great to be getting the Belfast equivalent to my salary, but WFH with none of the financial or time costs of the commute now
Have a friend based in London who works in IT in the City. Management already having discussions about different pay scales for those "living outside the commuter belt".
Can understand this. The high Salaries are necessary because of the high costs of living in the city, but if those costs are massively reduced you either have employees with a lot more disposable income, or more profit for employers if they reduce salaries based on location..
If companies in the city realise they can hire skilled software developers in the sticks for a reasonable salary for that location, then they might start doing that - but what's to stop them hiring developers from countries where that costs are even lower
