California commuters are paying a brutal price just to punch the clock and, surprisingly, Los Angeles drivers don’t even have it the worst.
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it → pay → clock
California claimed a whopping four spots among the nation’s 10 most expensive commutes, with San Francisco and San Jose taking the top two spots, according to a new ConsumerAffairs analysis.
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Francisco → claim → analysis
The rankings combine the estimated value of commuting time with fuel costs using wage, Census commute-time, federal driving and AAA gas-price data.
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rankings → combine → data
Workers in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro area face an estimated annual commuting cost of a staggering $10,902, while those in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area shell out the equivalent of $10,636 a year.
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those → face → 10,636
Stockton-Lodi landed further down the list at $8,362 annually, while the notoriously traffic-clogged Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro clocked in at $8,270.
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metro → land → 8,270
Washington, D.C. and New York were also among the priciest places in America to get to work.
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Washington → get → work
ConsumerAffairs calculated the totals by looking beyond what drivers fork over at the gas pump.
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drivers → calculate → pump
Researchers also put a price tag on something commuters may overlook, the hours they spend getting to and from work without getting paid.
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they → put → work
For someone working an eight-hour shift with a half-hour commute each way, that effectively turns an eight-hour job into a nine-hour daily commitment.
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that → work → commitment
Over hundreds of workdays, those unpaid hours can add up to thousands of dollars in lost time.
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hours → add → time
And nowhere does that sting quite like the Bay Area.
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that → sting → Area
San Francisco-area workers spend an average of 62 minutes commuting round-trip each day, according to the analysis.
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workers → spend → analysis
With a median hourly wage of $35.70, that amounts to roughly 259 hours a year on the move, nearly 11 full days.
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that → amount → move
ConsumerAffairs used a California gas price of $5.65 per gallon in its calculation, pushing estimated annual fuel costs for San Francisco commuters to $1,643, the highest in the country.
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ConsumerAffairs → use → country
The Silicon Valley metro has the highest median hourly wage in the country at $40.41, making all that unpaid travel time particularly costly.
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time → have → 40.41
Workers there spend more than 222 hours a year commuting, with the value of that time estimated at $8,993 annually.
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value → spend → 8,993
San Jose’s inflation-adjusted commuting costs also jumped 30.4% over the past decade.
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costs → adjust → decade
UCLA urban planning professor Evelyn Blumenberg said housing choices can help explain why workers end up spending so much time on the road.
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workers → say → road
As metropolitan areas have expanded, some workers seeking more affordable homes have moved farther from employment centers, trading cheaper housing for longer trips to work.
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workers → expand → work
Blumenberg said metro size, congestion, transportation mode and worker characteristics are all closely associated with commute times.
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size → say → times
California’s showing may not come as much of a shock considering its cities also routinely rank among America’s most expensive places to live.
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cities → come → places
Separate 2025 cost-of-living data from the Council for Community and Economic Research ranked San Jose as California’s most expensive urban area and second nationally behind Manhattan.
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data → rank → Manhattan
San Francisco ranked sixth nationwide, just behind Los Angeles.
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Francisco → rank → Angeles
For workers desperate to give their wallets and themselves a break, heading south or toward the Midwest could help.
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heading → give → Midwest
The ConsumerAffairs report found the least expensive commutes among the 100 largest metros were in McAllen and El Paso, Texas; Wichita, Kansas; Toledo, Ohio; and Greenville, North Carolina.
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commutes → find → McAllen
The calculations don’t include other wallet-busters such as tolls, parking, maintenance, insurance or differences in vehicle efficiency — meaning for some commuters, the true price of getting to work could be even higher.
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price → include → work
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