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How Much Do Workers Actually Value Working from Home?

Author

Listed:
  • Markus Nagler
  • Johannes Rincke
  • Erwin Winkler
Abstract
Working from home (WFH) has become ubiquitous around the world. We ask how much workers actually value this job attribute. Using a stated-preference experiment, we show that German employees are willing to give up 7.7% of their earnings for WFH, but they value other job attributes more. For instance, the willingness-to-pay is 13.2% for reducing a commute of 45 to 15 minutes. WFH valuations are heterogeneous across workers and WFH substantially contributes to compensation inequality across education levels. Finally, valuations meaningfully interact with commuting distance and WFH reduces (but does not close) the gender gap in willingness-to-pay to avoid commuting.

Suggested Citation

  • Markus Nagler & Johannes Rincke & Erwin Winkler, 2022. "How Much Do Workers Actually Value Working from Home?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10073, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10073
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    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp10073.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Lee, Kangoh, 2023. "Working from home as an economic and social change: A review," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    2. Richard Audoly & Manudeep Bhuller & Tore Adam Reiremo, 2024. "The Pay and Non-Pay Content of Job Ads," Staff Reports 1124, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    working from home; working conditions; inequality; commuting; compensating wage differentials;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions

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