Commuters in these San Diego areas spend 10% of their annual wages on the drive: report

Amber Coakley
·2 min read

SAN DIEGO — Although working from home has become a common practice for many, others are still faced with the daily commute to and from their jobs.

With construction zone, accidents and periodic traffic jams impacting commuter flow weekly, Chamber of Commerce weighed the question — what is the actual cost of commuting annually?

To find the answer to that question, the research company looked deeper into factors that attribute to average daily and yearly costs of commuting in 170 of the most populated cities across the country.

Find out if San Diego County owes you money

Their analysis compared the average round-trip commute time in each city with the median income for full-time, year-round workers.

To determine the average commute cost per day, Chamber of Commerce first multiplied the mean wage per minute by the average round-trip commute duration. Then, the research company multiplied that value by the total working days per year to determine the annual commute cost.

According to their report, the city with the costliest commute is San Francisco, California with an average commute time of 58.4 minutes, daily commute cost of $48.66, and yearly commute cost of $12,650.66.

New York City ranked fifth in the cities with the costliest commutes. Workers in the Big Apple spend an average of 1 hour and 20 minutes commuting, with the daily cost being $41.66 and the yearly cost equating to $10,831.74.

A full list of the cities by rank can be found here.

When we look at local data, Oceanside landed itself 31st costliest and San Diego was ranked 47th costliest, Chamber of Commerce’s report show.

Here are the highlights for San Diego:

  • Average Round-Trip Commute: 45 minutes

  • Median Earnings for Full-Time Workers: $66,536

  • Daily Commute Cost: $23.88

  • Yearly Commute Cost: $6,210.03

Here are the highlights for Oceanside:

  • Average Round-Trip Commute: 58 minutes

  • Median Earnings for Full-Time Workers: $56,579

  • Daily Commute Cost: $26.48

  • Yearly Commute Cost: $6,883.78

When you put that into perspective, nearly 10% of annual wages of commuters in Oceanside and San Diego go straight into a gas tank, based on this study.

That may come as a financially painful revelation for those dodging road debris and waking up early every week to get to work on time.

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