What makes this Not The Onion to me is how normalized this story is. How did things get to this point? Would she be happy with a job that only had a 2.5 hour commute each way!? Maybe, and that is what makes it existentially funny to me.
For example, an increase in the commuting time for the average respondent by only 15 min would have to be compensated by a net wage increase of almost 12%.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537124001271
The analysis relies on data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By determining the average time people spend commuting in metro areas and the average hourly wage in those areas, the analysis calculates the dollar value of a worker’s commuting time over a year.
who the fuck takes a job 3 hours away
There are folks who commute by car from Scranton to New York. There are also people who live in Harrisburg and York who commute to Baltimore and DC.
It’s insane.
When I get back to DC I’ll probably find a place in West Virginia
Imagine judging someone because they couldn’t find affordable housing (in this market) closer than 3 hours away from their job
The article says the commute took so long because of traffic and congestion on the roads, so the distance itself might not be that far. It’s an unreasonably long commute either way though.
I could maybe understand accepting a job that far away as a temporary solution, like if you are eventually planning to relocate to that area and need to save up first, or trying to break into an industry with limited local opportunities until you get a bit of experience and find something closer.
Some people do it because of the cost of living differential. If pay in the city is over three times what you could make local, you might be incentivized to take a long commute and deal with it.
I live in Tipperary. A while ago I had an interview for a job in Louth, and one of the interviewers asked me if I would be driving the breadth of the country every weekday; her tone of voice and body language suggested this was a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and more plausible than moving house.
I answered no, I’d move, because people who drive across multiple counties 10 times a week are lunatics. Turned out one of the other interviewers was a lunatic.
So it was a long way to Tipperary?
Unless you live in Waterford, the song is accurate.
There are some supercommuters who travel long distances to work in Manhattan. I knew of some who live in Pennsylvania.
Knew quite a few ppl like that. They took the train/car into a city hours away and then stayed in hotel a few days then went home as for weekly routine. Its always the same reason family and affordability.
God damn. I just got back from a “vacation” in New York and I can’t even imagine it. Even traveling from uptown Manhattan to downtown Manhattan is already a longer commute than I would be willing to tolerate…
Traffic may have been more manageable when they took the gig.
Or, maybe housing costs and limited jobs forced them into this position. I know a lot of people in my area live away from the urban center for more affordable housing, but they work in the urban center because that is where the job opportunities are.
I’ve got a coworker that works in the Bay Area but lives in the Midwest. Another I know works in New Jersey but lives in the Midwest. Corporate RTO initiatives in High COL areas with a salary differential coupled with lower Midwest COL and housing costs make strange things viable.
Wait, what kind of fucking lunatic commutes across the rockies‽
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/housing-planning/2025/12/05/the-35-hour-35km-commute-kildare-motorists-on-their-m7-traffic-nightmare/
At those speeds I would advise using a bicycle, it’s faster and cheaper
Bikes aren’t allowed on motorways, and if you sneak past the checkpoints you have a good chance of dying.