The 100% remote work is becoming a model with less and less presence, since companies are adopting hybrid days in the best case, and the return to face -to -face in many others.
In that context, a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) I have revealed that employees are willing to give up a percentage of their salary, or accept offers with a lower salary, if that allows them to continue working from home.
Up to 25% salary cut. The NBER study has analyzed how much the employees of the technological sector value remote work, using concrete data and comparing it with its salary. This assessment allows to measure the real value that employees give to teleworking in a context in which face -to -face work and hybrid work models have become the most common option.
The result has been surprising since the employees came to assume discounts of up to 25% on average in exchange for not having to go to the office. As Teleworking days were renounced, the salary amount to which they were willing to give up was also reduced, going down to the strip from 15 to 20% of the total salary.
A much higher cuts than expected. The National Bureau of Economic Research is not the first study that addresses this valuation of teleworking, but the estimates of the previous studies resulted in a much smaller percentages fork that placed the cut that were willing to assume between 5% and 10% of your total salary.
As an example, we find the study conducted in January 2024 by the University of Barcelona and the “La Caixa” Foundation, which set this percentage of 8% salary cut.
However, something that must be kept in mind is that the teleworking options have remained in high qualification profiles and higher wages, so this cut already part of a salary range with a high percentile.
The law of supply and demand. According to data from the report ‘IV Radiography of Teleworking in Spain 2024’ prepared by Infojobs, 7.6% of employed people work more than half of their weekly day from home. However, the study ‘State of Remote Work’ of 2023 prepared by Buffer, revealed that 98% of employees preferred to work from home for the constant interruptions and for displacements to the office.
On the other hand, as the Infojobs study pointed out, the offers that included some teleworking modality has been reduced by 2024, representing 14% of the total employee vacancies published. This percentage has only declined since in 2021 it reached its 21% peak, which was reduced to 19% in 2022 and 18% of the total in 2023.
According to the NBER study, reduction in the remote employment supply has made remote work perceived as a much more valuable modality than was estimated in previous studies, especially among technological industries.
A justification for charging less? The study opens an important debate on compensatory differentials between employees. Employees with teleworking days do not show substantial salary differences with respect to their peers who go to the office.
That would leave the door open to companies could reduce salary for remote roles under the principle of compensatory differentials. That is, pay less in exchange for non -salary benefits such as hourly flexibility, which their classmates do not enjoy with a face -to -face day. Something that is not happening.
According to the authors of the study, this salary equalization suggests that technology companies are still adjusting to this new labor reality and compete to retain talent by offering similar wages, regardless of whether work is remote or face -to -face.
Telefajo: an advantage for SMEs. As the Adecco It & Digital salary guide has revealed, SMEs cannot compete with the salary ranges offered by large technological ones. That is why teleworking offers them an opportunity to attract talent that does not find remote employment offers in large technological ones, which have given their adventure with teleworking.
Nber’s study demonstrates a trend in which qualified employees would be willing to collect a lower salary that would perceive it in a large multinational, in exchange for being able to work from home. This implies a factor that balances the opportunities to capture talent for SMEs.
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