The salary a longer commute quietly cancels out

Comparing two job offers on salary alone ignores a cost that can run to several lakh a year once time is priced in.

By Raj Mohan

19 Aug 2026 · 3 min read · spending, commute, career

A job offer is compared on salary. The commute is treated as a lifestyle detail. It is a financial line item, and often a large one.

The direct cost

Twenty kilometres each way, 22 working days a month:

The car figure includes fuel, servicing, tyres, insurance and parking, but not depreciation — which on a ₹10 lakh car losing 15% a year is another ₹1.5 lakh, and is the largest single cost of car ownership by a distance.

The time cost

Ninety minutes each way is three hours a day, fifteen hours a week, roughly 690 hours a year. That is around 86 working days.

Priced at your own hourly rate — annual salary divided by roughly 2,000 hours — someone on ₹15 lakh is spending about ₹5.2 lakh of time a year getting to work.

You do not receive that as cash, so it is not a cost in the accounting sense. It is entirely a cost in every other sense, and it is the reason a 20% raise attached to double the commute is frequently a downgrade.

Comparing two offers properly

For each offer, compute:

Effective hourly = (Annual salary − annual commute cost)
                   / (Working hours + commute hours)

An offer of ₹18 lakh with three hours of daily travel and ₹2 lakh of commuting cost works out to roughly ₹600 an hour. An offer of ₹15 lakh with thirty minutes of travel and ₹30,000 of cost works out to roughly ₹690. The lower salary pays better.

Calculate yours

What to do with the number

Rent closer, if the maths works. ₹8,000 a month more in rent to remove a ₹9,500 commute is free, before counting the returned time.

Negotiate days, not just salary. Two remote days a week cuts the commute cost by 40% and is often easier to obtain than a raise of equivalent value.

Price it into the offer. "The commute costs me ₹2 lakh a year" is a concrete, defensible negotiating position, and one most candidates never make.

Re-run it when you move. People pick homes for rent and space, then absorb the commute cost for years without ever putting a number on it.

Open the commute cost calculator

Published by FinClamp. This guide is information, not financial advice — see the disclaimer.