Americans Would Take Pay Cuts And Give Up Vacation Days To Never Go Back To An Office Again

Written by C. James on August 4, 2021

Now that Americans have gotten a taste of the work-from-home life, they don’t want to go back to traditional office life. No more cubicles. No more harsh fluorescent bulbs. Days of packing lunches are gone. Pointless meetings are yesterday’s news (well, those have been replaced with pointless zoom meetings). No more commuting. And, most of all, no more money wasted on daily and weekly necessities for work.

Aside from the obvious joys of not having to see your boss and coworkers, and being able to work exclusively in athleisure wear, working from home comes with a number of financial benefits.

Financial Benefits Of Working From Home

According to Flexjobs (which is a marketplace to help people find work-from-home employment), people who work from home full-time can save around $8,000 per year. That is money that you can then put to work to make you more money. Here’s how that $8,000 per year savings is accumulated.

No commuting costs

Depending on your location, your commuting costs could vary. And they could be quite expensive. If you live outside of a major city, like NYC, you could be dealing with far more than just one commuting costs. Things you might be paying for that aren’t getting reimbursed by your company are gas, train tickets, tolls, subway passes, and parking garages. That doesn’t take into account yearly maintenance costs and wear and tear on your vehicle.

Working from home could be saving you hundreds of dollars per month on commuting. Especially if your commute involves multiple modes of transportation.

No more “work specific” clothes

Depending on your office environment, what you wear to work might not be the same thing that you wear in your everyday life. In fact, if your office is a business casual setting, chances are you had to buy a completely different wardrobe than you wore in your normal life. Working from home eliminates the need for that wardrobe.

No more buying lunch on the fly

There isn’t a circumstance (that we’re aware of) where buying food is ever cheaper than making food at home. Whether you’re buying fast casual food every day — like salads or Chipotle — or you’re going to sit down lunches with coworkers, chances are you’re spending double or more on food than you would be if you made your lunch at home.

65% Of Americans Would Take A Pay Cut To Work From Home

According to a new survey commissioned by Breeze, an insurance company, 65% of Americans would gladly take a 5% pay cut to work remotely full-time. However, only 15% of Americans would take a 25% pay cut in order to work from home forever.

In the survey, Breeze asked 1,000 adult Americans what they would give up to work remotely full-time. The answers are kind of wild.

Here’s the highlights how they answered:

65% would take a 5% pay cut
15% would take a 25% pay cut
39% would give up health insurance benefits
50% would give up vision insurance benefits
44% would give up dental insurance benefits
45% would give up disability insurance benefits
46% would give up 25% of their paid time off (PTO)
23% would give up 50% of their PTO
17% would give up 75% of their PTO
15% would give up 100% of their PTO
36% would give up their 401(k) or other retirement plan
53% would work an extra 10 hours per week
44% would give up paid parental leave
47% would give up mental health benefits
55% would give up social media for the next year
52% would give up Netflix or their favorite streaming service for the next year
52% would give up Amazon for the next year
To see the full survey results head over to Breeze.

The previously unmentioned elephant in the room is time. When you are forced to go into an office, as opposed to being able to work remotely, you are giving up far more time than you are being paid for. So on top of all the costs associated with having an office job, for a lot of Americans, commuting to and from an office takes time. Is getting one or two or three hours of your life back (EVERY SINGLE DAY) worth more than 5%? We’d argue it is.

We mentioned this earlier, but if you’re in the market for full time remote work, you should check out Flexjobs. They even work with companies that are looking to hire for fully remote executive positions.