(Forbes) This summer, Vermont made headlines when it announced plans to start paying remote workers $10,000 to move to the state. Now, a U.S. city wants in on the action, too. A new program — Tulsa Remote — will pay remote workers $10,000 to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for a year. Besides the hefty stipend, the program will offer a number of other attractive incentives, including a membership (worth $1,800) to the 36 Degrees North co-working space, up to three months of discounted rent in a furnished apartment in Tulsa’s Arts District, plus plenty of programming, events and community-building opportunities to help workers get settled.
The Tulsa Remote program is part of a series of efforts to attract new talent spearheaded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, a $3.5 billion charitable endowment that is committed to addressing poverty in Tulsa and creating a more vibrant city. The foundation also works with Teach for America to bring teachers to the city and has been sponsoring a fellowship for artists.
Tulsa Remote is just the latest in a series of clever — and lucrative — ways that destinations are working to lure new residents, from Candela, a small Italian town that is paying residents 2,000 euros ($2,350) to move there, to New Haven, Connecticut, which is giving up to $80,000 in incentives to attract homeowners. For many of these places, it's a way to replenish a dwindling population. Candela, a small town in Italy's Puglia region, had 8,000 people living there in the 1990s and now has just 2,700 residents.