Workers are ready to give up pay and benefits to stay remote, survey finds
Remote workers aren't ready to let go of their home office and would take a pay cut or give up benefits to never return to the office.
Almost two-thirds of remote workers or those looking for a remote job are ready to take a 5% pay cut to work from home, according to a survey by Breeze of 1,000 workers. Almost 1 in 4 said even a 15% pay cut would be an acceptable tradeoff, while 15% of workers are ready to sacrifice a quarter of their pay to not go to the office.
"Remote work is really becoming a new employee benefit," Colin Nabity, Breeze’s CEO & Co-founder, told Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "Employers need to look at this holistically to realize that to compete in a post-COVID world, the flexible work environments are so incredibly important to remaining competitive."
Employees are ready to trade more than their salary to continue working from home.
Around 46% of workers are ready to give up a quarter of their Paid Time Off (PTO), while 15% of workers would trade their entire PTO just to be remote. Additionally, 39% of workers would substitute their health benefits for not returning to the office, while 36% would give up their retirement plan.
More than half of workers (53%) would work an additional 10 hours a week — as long as it's from home.
"What this is showing is employees now value remote work just as much or more than some of the most popular traditional benefits like PTO, health insurance, dental, and vision," Nabity said.
Many big technology companies including Google, Facebook, and Twitter have been reportedly cutting pay for workers who choose to work from home permanently and move to or live in less expensive areas.
For instance, Google employees who used to commute longer distances and chose to work remotely may experience pay cuts based on the area they live in. The company said that their compensation has always been determined by location and will differ from city to city, according to reporting by Reuters. Pay cuts at Google can be as high as 25%, per Reuters.
"To be competitive in a post-COVID work environment, employers need to have flexibility when it comes to remote work," Nabity said. "There's a lot of cost savings for employees to work from home... that's something that employers need to take into account."
Denitsa is a writer for Yahoo Finance and Cashay, a new personal finance website. Follow her on Twitter @denitsa_tsekova
