A new study conducted by professors at Harvard found that 40% of workers would be willing to take a pay cut to keep working from home rather than return to the office.
A small percentage — 9% — would even be willing to give up 20% of their salary to keep their flexibility over working from the office five days per week, the study said.
Harvard Business School professors Zoë Cullen and Christopher Stanton surveyed over 2,000 workers for their study.
The research found that the highest shares of workers willing to accept a salary reduction were those who worked remotely before the COVID-19 pandemic, had a college degree or changed jobs during the pandemic.
Workers aged 50 and older valued remote work the least, the study said.
The research also found that women were more willing to give up 20% of their salary to work from home than men. Those who identified as the primary caregiver in their household were also more willing to give up a larger chunk of their pay to work remotely.
This new study comes at a time when the Trump administration is ordering more federal workers to return to their offices and has offered buyouts — which a federal judge has temporarily paused — to encourage resignations or risk being laid off.
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