Business

It pays to come to the office — US workers’ who returned to their desks saw checks surge 36%

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Social Links for Shannon Thaler
Published March 26, 2024, 11:17 a.m. ET

American companies are paying as much as a 36% premium to workers who return to their desks five days a week, recent data shows.

The average annual salary offered for fully in-office roles was $82,037 — a hefty increase from last year’s average paycheck of $59,085, according to ZipRecruiter data for March 2024 obtained by the BBC.

Workers in hybrid roles, however, haven’t experienced such a year-over-year increase and are raking in an average of $59,992 — 36.75% less than those willing to come to the office full time, ZipRecruiter found.

“The conclusion is that people demand higher pay increases for fully in-office jobs,” Julia Pollak, the chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told the BBC.

“An employer offering flexibility can negotiate the overall compensation package with non-monetary incentives, while an employer wanting teams on-site five days a week can only offer financial terms — a dollar value is placed on time spent in the office.”

Close up view of tax forms with Benjamin Franklin portrait, illustrating the concept of business finance
The average salary offered for fully in-person roles in the US so far this month stands at $82,037 — 36.75% more than the average $59,992 per year hybrid workers are making, the BBC earlier reported. Getty Images/iStockphoto

The rise in salaries for in-office workers comes amid mandates by many business to get employees back to their desks full-time following the pandemic.

In 2023, workers who transitioned from fully remote to fully in-office schedules saw their salaries soar 29.2% from the previous year — nearly double that of those moving the other way, according to the BBC, citing ZipRecruiter findings.

ZipRecruiter’s March 2024 data showed that around 33% of professional and business-service roles in the US are advertised as hybrid or remote.

The data supports findings from videoconferencing company Owl Labs, which said that 66% of US workers had returned to the office five days a week in 2023 — up dramatically from 41% who were in the office full-time in 2022, CNBC earlier reported.

However, with more pay to be in office comes “wildly more” expenses, per Owl Labs, which found that full-time office workers are spending roughly $1,020 a month to report to the workplace, while hybrid workers spend an average of $408 per month on attendance.

Millennial female employee engaged in online video call meeting with colleagues from home
“The conclusion is that people demand higher pay increases for fully in-office jobs,” Julia Pollak, the chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told the BBC. fizkes – stock.adobe.com

As a result, Owl Labs concluded that companies are increasingly covering commuting costs and offering perks like free food, child-care subsidies and a relaxed dress code in order to lure hybrid workers back to the office, according to CNBC.

The return-to-office trend has gained steam in New York City in recent months, according to the Real Estate Board of New York.

In December, the organization found that the average visitation rates at 350 Manhattan buildings rose to 67% of 2019 rates — up from the 65% recorded in November.

In better news, the figure would have been 74% if the sleepy last week of December between Christmas and New Year’s weren’t included, according to REBNY.