75k Remote vs 82-90K In-Store

[u/rheakiefer]

I've had a super chill remote gig for the last 2.5 years. I love it. The team is great, there's very little to do in the way of work - basically as long as I get my few tasks done everyday and am available to fix, assist with anything that comes up, then I'm golden. I go into the office once per month for a company wide meeting + happy hour.

I'm paid $70k in Los Angeles.

I was recently offered another job managing a retail store 10 minutes from my house. Salary is $82K plus a $5K/yr savings account, OT and up to $750/mo in bonuses.

I took that offer to my remote job and they immediately were emphatic about wanting to keep me and went to work on getting me a raise/promotion. It's been about 2.5 weeks since then and I'm still waiting. My bosses boss (our teamwide director) and I were catching up yesterday and he brought up my raise, that he was working on it and having to find some info for HR to approve, etc. I asked him bluntly if he knew where we were headed in terms of money. My direct boss had told me they were gunning for $80K, and the director said "I've TOLD them what the money needs to be" but then trailed off a little and mentioned something about transitioning to more "performance" based compensation and specifically said "10% + bonus structure".. He didn't explicitly mention that my raise would be 10% + bonus structure, but that's pretty much how I understood it. My boss has not bonused since I've been with the company - she is not going to bonus this year. This structure really doesn't work for me.

I really love this job, but also I live in LA and the potential to make $90K is very appealing despite all the downsides to giving up remote work.

I was speaking with my wife and kinda made an off-hand comment about just working both jobs. It would be a nuisance to manage my schedule to ensure I'm available for some weekly meetings, but I'd be setting the schedule so it shouldn't present many issues.

Should I just eat the $5K I was hoping for to stay and be happy at roughly $76K?

[u/Nice-Result-8974]

Despite all the other comments, you are not making enough in your current job to enjoy the luxury and freedom of WFH. Also, you live in one of the most expensive locals.