Studies Show Remote Workers Want Higher Pay, Childcare Before Returning to Office

A woman using a laptop on a dining room table set up as a remote office to work from home, on March 4, 2020. Joe Giddens/PA Wire

A hallmark of businesses trying to attract young and talented workers used to be the installation of ping-pong, foosball, and air hockey tables, with plush employee lounges and a kitchen with around-the-clock food and drink. Some of those companies even hired a full-time chef.

However, as the COVID-era sent many workers home or to remote locations, a number of workplace studies show those workers don’t want games and food—they want more money, less stress, and daycare before they come back to the office.

“I think the pandemic led to a massive shift in norms, and companies had made a tremendous investment in the office with company cultures that included cafes and game rooms and off-campus gym membership. The pandemic closed those office-obsessed businesses and forced them to find another way,” Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told The Epoch Times.

ZipRecruiter’s study of new hires in the second quarter this year found that office workers were paid, on average, $82,037, up more than 38 percent from a year ago. The study found that remote workers were paid $75,327, representing an increase of only 9 percent.

“The culture in America where there were jobs where you knew you would be there 8 to 8 and eat all three meals there and not expect to see your spouse, and this arms race to see who had to coolest office, is over,” Pollak said.

According to a Gartner study, many employees are finding pay disparities between remote and office workers have led to negative employee company perception, resulting in a 15 percent decrease in their intent to stay, a 13 percent increase in job-searching activity, and a 13 percent decrease in employee engagement.

Dan Kaplan, a senior partner at the global management consulting firm Korn Ferry, told The Epoch Times that the tenure and commitment to a job or company is sometimes framed by how quitting a job isn’t going to land them looking for food and housing.

“This generation coming up is just different,” he said. “They feel less of an emotional tie to the company, and their tenure will be shorter than earlier generations. Financially, they are better off on balance and coming into the workforce with less debt after being provided with a better lifestyle growing up. And if they quit, they can go home and live with Mom and Dad.”

The Gartner study also found that pay is not the only reason people aren’t returning to work. They also are looking for acknowledgment and growth opportunities in their pursuit of feeling more “valued, trusted and empowered.”

“The intent to leave or stay in a job is only one of the things that people are questioning as part of the larger human story we are living,” said Caitlin Duffy, the research director of Gartner’s HR practice. “You could call it the ‘Great Reflection.’ It’s critical to deliver value and purpose.”

For many, that purpose now includes growing families. A recent survey by ResumeBuilder.com found that a remote worker’s desire to avoid going to the office is more about wanting greater control over their personal, family, and economic lives and less about working from home. Those surveyed mentioned better work-life balance (85 percent), avoiding commutes (71 percent), and making it easier to find childcare (40 percent).

The childcare dilemma led many companies to add that element to their office culture before the pandemic, but high-profile companies like Google have recently ended the practice. Pollak says many workers remain remote because of the absence of childcare providers, and companies looking to add that incentive are hard to find.

“Daycare is one of the few kinds of employee benefits where we’ve seen no growth. Less than 1 percent offer it, and there’s been no budget for it. Expanded health insurance and retirement benefits have grown, but childcare has not. Companies don’t seem to want to go near it,” she said.

Stress is another big issue for remote workers returning to the office, no matter how much money they make. Last year, research from Owl Labs, a hybrid work-tech video conferencing company, found that fewer remote workers (36 percent) said work-stress levels had increased in the past year compared with full-time office workers (59 percent) who said their stress increased.

Kaplan believes that one of the elements leading to a sometimes negative or stress-filled workplace is the diminishing office camaraderie since the pandemic.

“There’s a survey I saw showing that 15 years ago, the average person had a work best friend and right out of college, they’d go to happy hour because most of their social network was at work. That’s certainly not the case now. Not anymore,” he said.