And that doesn’t even include cost of living.

I would spend at least 500€ a month for comparable living standards in the city the nearest office is located in. And even then, I’d live somewhere in a half-ghetto 1h away from the office.

I’d be really interested in statistics about the amount of actual in presence work. Maybe software development is the absolute outlier here, but every single team I’ve worked in was distributed in some form. If half the team is 500km away anyway, being in the office changes nothing compared to being at home.