Here's one way to improve jobs-housing balance: employers can incentivize short commutes by helping to pay for the cost of housing.
"Facebook wants to keep its workers close to the office, and it’s willing to pay for it," reports Patrick Clark.
"The social networking giant is offering workers $10,000 or more to move within 10 miles of the company’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters," according to news originally broken by Reuters.
Clark names the ability to work longer hours, and spend less time commuting, as the reasoning behind the cash incentive. Clark also spends some time analyzing the question of why more companies don't do the same:
"The simple answer has to do with taxes. Unlike with retirement funds, say, where the government provides an explicit tax benefit for companies to pay for employee benefits, housing stipends can be taxable for both the employer and employee, according to a report this summer from Bloomberg BNA (subscription required). So employers operating in expensive housing markets have become accustomed to paying higher salaries, and letting workers decide how to spend the money."
FULL STORY: More Companies May Start Helping Employees Buy Homes
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research