Working from home might be good for your wallet as well as your mental health
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Working from home often pays more than working in the office for jobs in the tech industry, new research shows.
HR company Remote collected data on more than six million job openings through 2022 from employee resource Glassdoor and found that web developers and software engineering positions offer the most remote opportunities compared to other occupations, accounting for 37% and 36% of total remote jobs and labor market respectively.
Web developers who work from home can also earn an average of $22,508 more than their on-premises counterparts, which is a 37% increase. The percentage difference between remote and office salaries for software engineers is slightly smaller, but they generally get paid more.
Salary plus benefits
The situation is also largely the same for UK tech workers. Again, web developers and software engineers make up the bulk of remote jobs, at 31% and 29% respectively, with the former earning £13,000 more than the average for the position, and £6,500 for the latter.
Remote noted that employees are the ones leading the way in this shift, and they are the ones expecting and seeking roles that offer flexible and telecommuting arrangements. So to ensure that companies acquire their much-needed talents, they are advertising roles with these draws in mind.
In addition to specific functions, Remote also analyzed industries in general. In the UK, IT was the most popular industry for remote opportunities, accounting for 13.9% of remote jobs. In the US, IT came in third with 15.4%, followed by media and communications (15%) and management and consulting (19.4%).
Remote VP Nadia Vatalidis commented on the benefits of remote working for both employers and employees, including a “much greater selection of top candidates and reduced need for costly office space” for the former and “greater flexibility and the potential to work from anywhere in the world” for the latter.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic forced many companies to work remotely, arguments have been pouring in from both sides about the continued commitment to such arrangements.
So-called hybrid working is now the latest trend, which seems to strike a balance between new and traditional work culture, where employees have the choice to come to the office at certain times and stay home at others. It allows for flexible working hours at times that suit the individual best.
Additional research from Slack found that employees may leave to find new employment if hybrid working isn’t available, as many employees felt more job satisfaction and less stress if they could work this way.
On the other hand, employers face a greater security challenge as different endpoints are spread across countless home networks, so protecting data is more important than ever and needs the attention it deserves.