£60k in London vs £50k remote: a worked example

The worked example

£60,000 hybrid in London — three office days, 80-minute round trip, £12 a day — against £50,000 fully remote. Plan 2 loan and 5% pension on both.

Ten thousand pounds of gross gap shrinks to £3,803 of net position — and per committed hour the two jobs are within 16p, with remote fractionally ahead at £20.95 vs £20.79. The £10k job and the £50k job pay the same wage for an hour of your life.

What this page deliberately doesn't model

Cost of living. Rent in London against rent elsewhere is a personal, postcode-sized question, and a calculator that pretended to know yours would be guessing — we say so plainly on the methodology page. What the engine gives you instead is the clean other half: the £3,803 is what London's offer is worth before housing. If moving out of London saves you more than £317 a month in rent, the remote deal wins on cash alone — and that is your number to know, not ours to invent.

The break-even figure prices the negotiation: this remote role would need £56,664 to match London's net position outright. 'I love the role, but there's a £6.7k gap to close' is a sentence a hiring manager can answer.

The hours and the life axis

The remote job also takes 182 fewer committed hours a year — the commute — and that, plus how each setup fits the one you actually prefer, scores on the life axis with your priorities setting the weights. If you prefer remote, the verdict tilts further; if you would honestly miss the office three days a week, tell it so and watch the flexibility score change sign. Related: what a commute costs per year and taking a pay cut for balance.