How Much Do Workers Actually Value Working from Home?

Arbeitspapier

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.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 10073

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Demand and Supply of Labor: General ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials ; Compensation Packages; Payment Methods ; Labor Standards: Working Conditions
• Subject: working from home ; working conditions ; inequality ; commuting ; compensating wage differentials

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Nagler, Markus ; Rincke, Johannes ; Winkler, Erwin
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/267306