(NewsNation) — Major companies are urging workers to return to the office and new data suggests they’re willing to pay a premium for those who come in five days a week.
Employers are offering an average of $82,037 for fully in-person roles this year, up nearly 40% from $59,085 in 2023, according to ZipRecruiter data reviewed by NewsNation.
The average salary for fully remote roles ($75,327) and hybrid roles ($59,992) has also increased year-over-year but at a much slower rate — about 10%.
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The findings represent a marked shift from two years ago when hybrid and remote job postings listed salaries that were 20% higher on average than in-person roles on ZipRecruiter.
“The recruitment and retention benefits of remote work have translated into lower wage growth pressure for remote employers,” Zip Recruiter Chief Economist Julia Pollak said in a statement.
Remote job postings receive significantly more applications, and surveys have consistently shown that workers are willing to give up pay for additional flexibility, Pollak noted.
Last year, a Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that 55% of fully remote workers would take a lower-paying job to stay remote.
When it comes to their actual salary, a prospective employee will give up about 8% in annual pay for a job that is partly or fully remote, Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom recently told USA Today.
Now, employers are factoring that into their offers.
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In 2023, U.S. workers who switched from a fully remote job to a fully in-office job saw a 29% pay bump, nearly double that of those who moved the other way from fully in-office to fully remote, ZipRecruiter found.
Several large companies have recently called on employees to return to their desks. American tech giant Dell has said remote employees who don’t come back won’t be considered for promotions.
Last fall, Boeing told workers in its commercial division they need to be in the office five days a week, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Whether or not that shift happens en masse could have serious implications for the nation’s commercial real estate sector. American office buildings ended 2023 emptier than they’ve been in decades. Across the country, foot traffic in central business districts is still well below pre-pandemic levels.
As of February, about 28% of all paid workdays in the U.S. were still working from home.
While fully in-person roles are seeing higher listed salaries today, fully remote workers reported earning more on average in 2023 — $60,234 a year versus $53,616 for in-person work, according to ZipRecruiter.
“So-called knowledge workers — people who work at desks with computers and information — are much more likely both to be highly paid and to have access to remote work than cashiers, wait staff, caregivers, and other in-person workers,” Pollak wrote.
