The state of Vermont is paying remote workers to become residents. A new bill signed into law Wednesday will pay remote workers $5,000 a year for two years to make the Green Mountain State their home, as long as their employer is based somewhere else, reports CityLab's Teresa Mathew.

The bill’s backers say it’s an effort to address a challenge with the state’s small, aging population—a 2017 census estimate placed it at just under 630,000, making Vermont less populous than Columbus, Ohio. “We need more people in the state and people participating in the workforce,” said Joan Goldstein, the commissioner of Vermont’s Department for Economic Development. It could be easier to convince people to move if they don’t have to change jobs, Goldstein said, and the money could help with relocation expenses or renting co-working spaces.

To qualify, workers must be full-time employees who do the majority of their work inside a home office or co-working space in Vermont, and who work for a business based out of the state. Those who establish residency in January 2019 would be the first people eligible for the program.

“What we’re offering is really just a way for people to become aware that there are opportunities here,” Goldstein said. Vermont is a popular destination—it receives up to 13 million visitors a year. But most of those people come up for a ski weekend or fishing trip, seeing the state as a place to vacation, not to live. Vermont’s new Stay to Stay weekends program is trying to address this by inviting weekend visitors to extend their stays and meet with young professionals, community leaders, employers, realtors, and co-working spaces. The authors of the new law are banking on out-of-staters falling in love with the state and its communities. “We think it’s at least an entrée into the state,” Goldstein said. The remote-worker program “might be what attracts them, and then they decide to look for a job here to develop more of a social network. As long as we get them here, we think there may be an opportunity for that.”

For more information about building homes for teleworkers, click here.

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