Many workers would take a pay cut to work from home — some would forgo at least 20% of their salary
Many workers value remote work to such a degree that they'd take a pay cut to be able to work from home, even on a part-time basis, studies show.
The prevalence of remote work ballooned during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many experienced telework perhaps for the first time in their careers; employees cite work-life balance as by far the biggest perceived benefit, according to Pew Research Center.
Some researchers have quantified the financial value workers assign to telework.
For example, about 40% of workers say they'd accept a pay cut of at least 5% to keep their remote job, according to a recent study by researchers at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
About 9% would trade at least 20% of their salaries to preserve telework, said researchers, who polled more than 2,000 workers.
Put another way, workers see the ability to work from home — even two or three days a week — as equivalent to getting a raise, according to Nick Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University who studies workplace management practices.
Data that Bloom has collected in recent years suggests the average worker equates remote work to about an 8% raise, he said.
«That figure seems remarkably stable» over time, Bloom said in an e-mail.
«For some subsets of workers you can find higher numbers,» relative to the pay cut they would accept, Bloom said.
For example, a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper published in January that looked at workers predominantly in the technology field found they'd accept an average 25% pay cut for a job that offers fully or partially remote work.
«The reality is: It is a very attractive feature of a job,» said Zoe Cullen, an assistant professor
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