Metropolis

Why So Many Cities Are Now Paying Workers $10,000 to Relocate

With the rise of remote work, cities like Tulsa and Tucson are offering big bucks to lure talent untethered by an office

Patrick Sisson
Marker
Published in
6 min readApr 6, 2021

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Photo illustration: Save As/Medium; Source: Getty Images

Metropolis is a column about the intersection of technology, business, and cities.

It’s not Instagram, but it may as well be. Tucson, Arizona, flaunts its star-filled desert sunset landscapes, taunting you with the thought that this could be your backyard view. Northwest Arkansas sells itself with a thrilling picture of a mountain biker navigating an elevated trail: sparkling water on one side, lush forests on the other, and, one assumes, a bright, adventurous future ahead. Vermont’s photos — small towns, steeples, and all, framed by rolling green mountains — tug at one’s sense of nostalgia. These aren’t ads targeted at tourists. They’re marketing campaigns aimed at convincing young, hungry talent to take a gamble on a new place alongside a less romantic reason to explore a new city: cold, hard cash.

Call it the new $10,000 question: Would you move to northwest Arkansas? The area and an increasing number of cities and states — Vermont; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Savannah, Georgia — are providing five-figure incentives to lure talent. The $10,000 welcome…

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Patrick Sisson
Marker
Writer for

A Chicago expat living in Los Angeles, Patrick Sisson writes about the intersection of cities, business, and culture.