- Your commute is worth more than your subway fare.
- Online loan marketplace Lending Tree published a report on the most expensive commutes in the 100 largest cities in the US.
- Five cities in California — Oakland, San Jose, Irvine, San Francisco, and Fremont — took top 10 spots in the ranking, with four of those cities being in the increasingly expensive San Francisco Bay Area.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Your commute isn't just costing you a subway fare or the price of gas — commuting costs time, and time is money.
Online loan marketplace Lending Tree published a report on the most expensive commutes in the 100 largest cities in the US in October. Lending Tree posits that the cost of a commute can be calculated by assuming time commuting has the same worth as time spent working.
Consider a resident in New York, which Lending Tree ranked as the city with the fifth most expensive commute. Using Lending Tree's findings via 2017 Census Bureau data, the median annual earnings for a full-time employee in New York is $51,573; their hourly wage is $26. Now, consider the mean time of commuting one way, 41.8 minutes. If you make $26 per hour at your job, and you spend 83.6 minutes daily on your round-trip commute, then your time wasted commuting is worth $37 of time you would have been working.
Five cities in California — Oakland, San Jose, Irvine, San Francisco, and Fremont — took top 10 spots in Lending Tree's ranking, with four of those cities being in the increasingly expensive San Francisco Bay Area.
Here are the 10 US cities with the most expensive commutes per person, given commute time and salary.
SEE ALSO: The 20 US colleges with the best return on your investment 40 years after you've enrolled
10. Oakland, California
Median full-time earnings: $56,307
Hourly wage: $29
Average hours worked per week: 38.7
Mean commute time: 33.9 minutes
Daily cost of commute: $33
Annual cost of commute: $8,549
9. San Jose, California
Median full-time earnings: $61,999
Hourly wage: $32
Average hours worked per week: 38.3
Mean commute time: 31.3 minutes
Daily cost of commute: $34
Annual cost of commute: $8,782
8. Seattle, Washington
Median full-time earnings: $72,052
Hourly wage: $37
Average hours worked per week: 39.2
Mean commute time: 28.3 minutes
Daily cost of commute: $35
Annual cost of commute: $9,016
7. Jersey City, New Jersey
Median full-time earnings: $57,152
Hourly wage: $29
Average hours worked per week: 39.9
Mean commute time: 36.5 minutes
Daily cost of commute: $35
Annual cost of commute: $9,062
6. Washington, DC
Median full-time earnings: $70,725
Hourly wage: $35
Average hours worked per week: 40.5
Mean commute time: 30.8 minutes
Daily cost of commute: $36
Annual cost of commute: $9,323
5. New York, New York
Median full-time earnings: $51,573
Hourly wage: $26
Average hours worked per week: 39
Mean commute time: 41.8
Daily cost of commute: $37
Annual cost of commute: $9,581
4. Irvine, California
Median full-time earnings: $80,944
Hourly wage: $42
Average hours worked per week: 38.3
Mean commute time: 26.8
Daily cost of commute: $38
Annual cost of commute: $9,818
3. Arlington. Virginia
Median full-time earnings: $82,357
Hourly wage: $39
Average hours worked per week: 41.8
Mean commute time: 29.1 minutes
Daily cost of commute: $38
Annual cost of commute: $9,938
2. San Francisco, California
Median full-time earnings: $80,812
Hourly wage: $40
Average hours worked per week: 40.4
Mean commute time: 33.8 minutes
Daily cost of commute: $45
Annual cost of commute: $11,719
1. Fremont, California
Median full-time earnings: $82,106
Hourly wage: $42
Average hours worked per week: 38.8
Mean commute time: 34.9 minutes
Daily cost of commute: $49
Annual cost of commute: $12,801