Research shows that if you are in a highly paid role, you’re more likely to be able to work remotely. The finding was made via a large research study from HBR from 2023, which looked at 10,000 job ads in the U.S. and assessed whether they allowed fully remote work or a hybrid model.
The study then went on to create a “highly accurate” LLM which was applied to hundreds of millions of job postings from the past decade, discovering that the link between salary and ability to work from home is more pronounced than ever.
If you earn around $30,000, you’re very unlikely to be able to work from home. However, 10% of those earning $60,000 are working remotely, with 20% of jobs paying $100,000 offering remote work. The figures then rise to 30% for jobs that pay around $200,000.
5 jobs to apply for this week
- Leader of ML/AI Solutions, Credit Acceptance, Remote ($179,688 – $342,500)
- Data Engineer II (Data & Analytics), The Travelers Companies, Inc., Hartford ($123,000 – $203,000)
- Data Architect, ICF, Reston ($76,848 – $130,642)
- Software Developer, Paycom Payroll Llc, Oklahoma City
- Software Developer – Java, Uline, Waukegan
The numbers are in your favor if you work in the tech industry. Recent Zip Recruiter figures indicate that the average annual pay for an IT worker in the United States is $109,707 a year. Glassdoor figures put the average earned by a software developer at $131,786. These numbers represent the median, so if you have more experience you’re very likely to earn a lot more.
Additionally, AI roles are likely to pay a premium, with 2023 reports of a machine learning role at Netflix offering $700K-$900K in compensation.
There are a number of factors around why you’re more likely to be able to work remotely. One is education level, with nearly 30% of adverts that ask for a post-graduate degree also offering the opportunity to work remotely––at least some of the time.
Experience is another factor, with only 3% of job ads for entry-level jobs offering remote work. And another factor may be that, if you are in an engineering or development role in the tech industry, you’re often what’s known as a sole or individual contributor.
In other words, you’re responsible for performing tasks or functions within the company without the authority to manage other employees. Therefore, it’s far easier for you to work remotely and never see the office environment if you don’t want to.
But despite all of this, many people working in tech are watching nervously as return to office mandates roll in. Meta employees are back on a hybrid basis, and Amazon wants everyone back in the office.
At Google, CEO Eric Schmidt inferred that remote work hindered the company’s AI development. “Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning,” he said.
Likewise, Dell now requires its hybrid employees to track their office attendance and be in the office around three days each week. It also said that workers who want to remain working remotely will no longer be eligible for job promotions or role changes.
Remote work rules here
However, there are a few outliers. Spotify’s chief human resources officer Katarina Berg recently said the company had no desire to treat its workers like kids.
“You can’t spend a lot of time hiring grownups and then treat them like children,” she said.
“We are a business that’s been digital from birth, so why shouldn’t we give our people flexibility and freedom?
“Work is not a place you come to, it’s something you do.”
Pinterest too, feels the same, with Doniel Sutton, chief people officer at Pinterest, saying: “Our internal analysis shows that in 2023, Pinterest’s flexible work policy boosted productivity, fostered more collaboration, and enhanced well-being.”
Sutton says the company has launched an initiative called PinFlex. It is a “model that balances flexible remote work with in-person collaboration”.
She also says that “employees who visit the office less frequently report that they spend more time on focused work and often collaborate more across departments than those who regularly work from a Pinterest office. It’s worth noting that this trend is especially evident among remote employees located more than 70 miles from an office.”
As the issue of remote versus in-office becomes more and more polarized, those workers who can flex their remote working muscles may look elsewhere for jobs at companies with policies similar to Pinterest and Spotify, for example.
Spotify knows this to be true, reporting attrition rates that were 15% lower in the second quarter of 2022, compared with the same period of 2019. Additionally, its flexible policies have also allowed it to improve the diversity of its talent.
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