Remote workers, your hybrid colleagues are likely making more than you
Have we ever found out if the chicken or the egg came first? I’m asking because the answer might help explain recent data from WFH Research showing that people who work in a hybrid environment — in the office one to four days a week — earn more than people who work either from home or work full-time in person.
The question is: do hybrid jobs simply pay more or earn more because they are in jobs that allow them to work a hybrid schedule? chicken or egg?
The study, conducted by Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Shelby Buckman, and Steven J. Davis, divided worker pools into three categories: fully remote workers, hybrid workers, and those who never work from home — ie. Employees who absolutely need to be physically at the workplace, either to provide services in person (e.g. retail or hospitality) or to interact with specialized equipment (e.g. a mechanic).
According to data from WFH Research, this group had an average annual salary of $55,000. That number spiked significantly among hybrid workers who worked from home for between one and four days. The annual salary of these employees exceeded $80,000, with people who spent most days remotely outside of the workweek earning an average of $88,000.
They even made more than fully remote workers, who brought in $74,000 annually.
The WFH team attributed the hybrid workers’ higher salaries to the fact that they are more likely to work in knowledge jobs that require a college degree or higher, which consequently pays more.
“Professionals and managers, who are among the highest-paid workers, are particularly likely to be in mixed roles because to interact with colleagues is valuable to them and their employers,” the report states. “By contrast, full-remote workers often perform specialized roles like IT support or payroll that require comparatively little interaction, and are paid less than managers, consultants, and lawyers. And that’s probably why the mean earnings for the full distance group are lower than for the hybrid group.”
It’s unclear whether that makes hybrid work a chicken or an egg when it comes to salaries, but it speaks to a lot of the pressure that employees and knowledge workers face for much of the year. Workers left their jobs in droves as part of the Great Resignation in search of opportunities that offered more flexibility and better benefits – mixed work was among the most appealing of all enticements.
This, in turn, led to an insane rush for talent, fueling a hot labor market where companies were willing to pay more and offer everything but the kitchen sink. That was, of course, until heightened recession fears forced them to take tough action.
Hybrid work has proven to be a boon almost three years after the pandemic first broke out, and for a large segment of American workers it is bound to remain. It makes even those looking in from the outside a little jealous. Hybrid work, for all its downsides and upsides, fits better into the world of better work-life balance that post-pandemic people are striving for — and you can add higher wages (and eggs) to the list, too.
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