Many Americans would accept pay cut to work from home
The average American worker prefers a traditional set work schedule — Monday through Friday from about 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — and really wants to work from home.
Those insights are part of a new study on how Americans value alternative work arrangements, which was published recently by the National Bureau of Economic Research. According to the study:
The average worker does value working from home and is willing to give up about 8% of wages for this option.
But American workers have an aversion to flexible scheduling or working an irregular schedule. The average worker is willing to give up one-fifth of salary in exchange for not having to work in the evenings or weekends, according to the study.
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Study co-author Alexandre Mas, a professor of economics and public affairs in Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, says in a press release:
"Flexible scheduling is not valued by many workers in the sense that they prefer a little extra income rather than a more flexible workplace."
Amanda Pallais, study co-author and the Paul Slack Associate Professor of Political Economy and Social Studies at Harvard University, says American workers don't like to work during nonstandard hours.
"Women and women with young children find working irregular schedules particularly costly. Yet, many women with young children are in jobs with irregular schedules."
The study was based on the analysis of data for about 7,000 job applicants at a national call center. The jobs that required people to work during weekends or in the evenings were the least popular with workers. The study notes that almost 40 percent of applicants would not take such jobs even if they paid 25 percent more than a standard 9-to-5 position.
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