The option to work remotely at least a few days a week has become a persistent feature of the post-pandemic job market, but not all workers value it similarly.
To understand how much employees consider remote work an amenity, Harvard Business School professors Zoë Cullen and Christopher Stanton asked more than 2,000 workers if they would be willing to give up part of their salaries to keep their flexibility rather than return to the office five days a week or find a new job.
While more than half of workers surveyed wouldn't take a salary reduction, 40 percent said they would accept a pay cut of 5 percent or more. Another 9 percent of respondents would trade 20 percent or more of their salaries to avoid the office.
The research paper, "The Rise of Remote Work: Evidence on Productivity and Preferences from Firm and Worker Surveys," was published by the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy in October. It builds on a study of remote work that began during the height of the pandemic. Cullen, an assistant professor, and Stanton, the Marvin Bower Associate Professor of Business Administration, coauthored the research with:
Edward L. Glaeser, the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University
Michael Luca, a professor with the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University and a former associate professor at HBS
Alexander Bartik, assistant professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
While examining the characteristics of workers, the researchers found that women were more willing to forgo 20 percent or more of their salaries compared with men. The research team initially thought that women’s childcare responsibilities might explain the gap, but they detected "few differences based on whether the respondent is the primary caregiver for a child."
Finally, the authors evaluated differences across industries, with workers in traditionally in-person sectors least likely to give up pay. When considering self-reported productivity, workers who said they were least productive while working remotely were also least likely to sacrifice compensation. Conversely, those who reported being even moderately productive were willing to accept a salary reduction to continue working outside the office.
