One of the reoccurring problems with Craigslist is that once it becomes popular many of the sections lose their usefulness as spammers, solicitors and other nefarious elements sick their claws into that once small community. Craigslist's response is, as many of us are aware, to require posters to pay a small fee on certain boards. The brokered housing boards in NYC and the job boards in Los Angeles, SF and NYC all require fees. And, as our friends up north have noticed, Craigslist is going to begin requiring fees for jobs in four other markets:Seattle, San Diego, Boston and DC.

While Craigslist charging for postings it pretty much the definition of old news, what we noticed for the first time is that posting for jobs in San Francisco costs fifty dollars more than posting for jobs in other cities. For some reason, jobs are more expensive for Bay Area residents then they are for those who live in San Diego, Seattle, NYC & DC -- and not just a little bit! Jobs in the Bay Area cost as much as job postings in those other cities.

On the off chance that we are just utterly out of touch with prices in other cities, we consulted a cost of living index and discovered that goods in Seattle, DC, NYC, SD and Boston are not three times as much as goods in San Francisco. So there must be another reason. And after thinking long and hard, we've come to the conclusion that we have no idea why.

Image from http://www.archives.com

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