NYC Gen Z is a ‘reverse’ super-commuter, earning less at work.
If New Yorker Caroline Colvin can make it here, she’ll make it anywhere — her full-time job in Baltimore, for example.
Unlike countless 9-to-5ers commuting from small hometowns into big cities for big checks, this Gen Z gal is doing things backwards.
“I’m a reverse super-commuter,” Midtown resident Colvin, 23, told The Post.
“I live in New York City, which is an expensive, high cost-of-living city,” she explained. “And I work in Baltimore, which is less expensive and has a lower cost-of-living.”
“I’m definitely paying more on bills and rent, added Colvin, a social media manager for the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where she commutes multiple times per week, she said. “And I’m receiving a slightly lower paycheck.”
It’s a topsy-turvy twist on the super-commuting trend — a movement made popular by non-New Yorkers who don’t mind taking massive treks into the office.
Kaitlin Jay, an Upper West Side hairdresser living in North Carolina, previously told The Post that making the 600-mile, bi-weekly hike from Charlotte to Manhattan by plane gives her “the best of both worlds.”
“I love what I do in New York and I love life in Charlotte,” said Jay, 30, who said she spends about $1,000 for airfare to-and-fro. “I’m coming out ahead.”
Grace Chang hoofs it from Arlington, Virginia, to her job in Hell’s Kitchen twice a week.
But the millennial financial analyst insists that the hellish 500-mile journey, which costs about $1,000 each month, is well-worth the hassle.
“I’ve always dreamed of working in New York,” Chang, 28, told The Post. “But there are definitely some weeks when I’m, like, ‘Why am I doing this?’”
Colvin, who told The Post she shells out around $500 a month to travel between the Big Apple and Charm City on Amtrak — a six-hour roundtrip spanning nearly 400 miles — is doing it for love.
“My fiancé, Kale, works in finance and got an opportunity in New York,” said the go-getter, who doubles as a theatre actress. She made her NYC debut in June, starring in the New York Theater Festival production of “Amity.”
“I perform and he’s in finance,” said Colvin. She and Kale relocated form Maryland to Manhattan in January. “Moving here just made sense for both of our professional pursuits.”
To save money, she bunks with her parents in Maryland while in town, she said.
And while schlepping back and forth for less pay might not make sense to most, Colvin says she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I love my [social media management] job and I love being in the city,” said Colvin. “And the job market is hard right now.”
“Maybe I’m not making as much money as I would if I were working and living in the same place,” she conceded.
“But having a job I enjoy is definitely something I’m thankful for in 2024.”
