By far and large that is wrong. There is a proportion of people who have that negotiating power, and even then only some of them will be considering the aspects

By far and large that is wrong. There is a proportion of people who have that negotiating power, and even then only some of them will be considering the aspects of their commute in those negotiations, and they will weigh the importance of that individually, and update only after some period of time during employment, if ever. The largest proportion of people are agreeing to "what the market will bear." Much in the same way as I have no debt and a considerable savings account, but ultimately I'm competing alongside people who have considerable debt and are fraught with scarcity and thus the going rate is pressed down due to desperate individuals willing to make considerable compromises on both the side of wages and those of working conditions. Alternatively it may be those who are willing to eschew wages for work experience, or perhaps immigrants who are really only allowed to work in some such sector who are fending for their families and willing to go to relative extremes. And etc... And this sort of stuff is what informs wages, and sets the negotiating window, if it exists, for most people and most jobs.