I got paid a lot more than that doing similar for a while before the pandemic. Since the pandemic companies got caught up in the forcing people back into offices for no reason. When you are assisting people across the nation and there is information that cannot be allowed to be accessed outside it, they have to keep the jobs in the country to keep government contracts. There is no point in hiring someone in the city and have them drive in when it costs more to live in the city, it’s cheaper to pay someone who lives further away.

Why pay someone $35 an hour in a city that they can barely afford to live in and are always looking for a way out the door to find a better rate, when you can hire someone elsewhere who can live comfortably off $35 an hour and considers themselves lucky.

I spent 3 years with a company that I never went into an office once.