Would you move to Tulsa, Oklahoma for $11,000?
What about southwest Michigan for $16,000?
Or Morgantown, West Virginia for $20,000?
The new website MakeMyMove.com helps remote workers find cities that will pay them to move to their community. The pay is impressive.
"What communities are starting to recognize is that remote workers can bring themselves, their family, their income as a new contribution to the communities," said Evan Hock, co-founder of MakeMyMove.
Hock says with many companies making remote work permanent, this gives workers a choice to move to a less expensive city.
Hock has had talks with officials in Racine and Milwaukee to see if they want to join the platform. The cities have a choice in marketing fees at sign-up.
"I like that they're leading with the community," said Kate Walker, Talent Recruitment Specialist with Racine County Economic Development Corporation. Walker likes the recruiter concept.
While Racine would gladly welcome new residents whose employers are out-of-state, the city specifically needs to address worker shortages in areas like healthcare and manufacturing. For years now, RCEDC has worked on programs like Greater Racine County aimed to attract workers.
Click on the below links to learn more:
- https://greaterracinecounty.com/bridging-the-talent-gap-in-racine-county/
- https://greaterracinecounty.com/live-here/meet-your-neighbors/
- https://greaterracinecounty.com/explore-and-take-root/
- https://jobs.greaterracinecounty.com/work-here/find-a-career
- https://greaterracinecounty.com/live-here/communities/
A scaled-down deal with Foxconnmeans now more than ever, her agency is looking outside the community for talent.
"What are the steps that your agency is taking to respond to that?" TMJ4 Consumer Investigator Kristin Byrne asked Walker.
"We still need to hit the ground pretty hard in trying to support all of our companies right now," Walker said.
Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Secretary and CEO, Missy Hughes, thinks Wisconsin communities should explore the idea since new families coming to our state give us a nice economic boost. But she says you need to take a look at the bigger picture too.
"You got to make sure that there's a house that they can move into, you got to make sure that there are schools their children can attend," said Secretary Hughes.
If the cost of living matters to you, Wisconsinis 6.5% less than the national average.
"A community like Racine or Milwaukee that maybe has had difficulty recruiting companies can have a lot of success recruiting individuals," Hock said.
"We know it's a long-term strategy to get somebody to move, but they just need to know about us and all the great opportunities that we can provide," Walker said.