The amenity value, flexible schedule, and cost-effective nature of remote work are so appealing and have become so valuable to employees that they are happy to take pay cuts in exchange for the liberty to work from anywhere other than their employers’ offices. 

Remote work reached unprecedented heights during the pandemic. Some employees who had worked from home during the pandemic enjoyed its benefits so much, they want to continue working from home. According to a new research paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), workers are willing to trade raises for telework, at least for a few days a week. 

Employers support this shift towards remote work and hybrid work to slow down employee wage growth and afforded employees – about four-in-ten firms – opportunities to work from home or other remote locations. Hence, there is clear evidence that the wage-growth restraint mechanism associated with the rise of remote work is in full swing and its momentum isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. 

How do employees find remote work’s amenity value so attractive despite slowing down wage growth? 

Amenity values refer to the natural or physical qualities and characteristics of an area that contribute to people’s appreciation of its pleasantness, aesthetic coherence, and cultural and recreational attributes. Amenity values apply to the workplace as well. 

Employees are individuals who have idiosyncrasies. For some employees who happily returned to the office, working from home during the pandemic might have been a stressful period. For them, on-site workplace amenity value trumps home office amenity value. Other employees who don’t mind pay cuts as long as they can work from home may have discovered that they like getting out of bed and getting into their home workstations better than getting dressed for work and commuting to their office, while others might have gotten comfortable working from their couch – their perception of workplace amenity values differs.  

Many employees who experienced remote work amenity values and found that these values support their productivity, mental and physical health, quality time, finances, family, and work-life integration better certainly want to have the option to continue working remotely – never mind if it means slower wage growth because there are non-monetary benefits. 

What types of remote work amenity values make employees think it is their ideal way to work? 

In the remote work realm, amenity value is what you make it – you wield a degree of control over the time you want to dedicate to work, yourself, leisure, physical comforts, your family, and friends. Such freedom and a sense of autonomy are limited when you work on-site. 

Genashtim Pte Ltd is a 100% remote company that hires people with disabilities (PWDs). Some of them have medical conditions to manage and some are quadriplegics. One of the company’s PWD workers, Therese Margareth Saranza is a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic. She works using voice recognition software while lying on her bed. It is not viable for her to travel and work in a conventional workplace. 

The reasons people opt for remote work aren’t the same. Not all remote workers work from home either. Some work from coworking spaces, cybercafes, and coffee shops, and others work while traveling or vacationing. So, types of remote work amenity values are vastly different and dependent on the places you work from. 

A home office’s amenity value can be the proximity to the comforts you can use thanks to remote work’s flexible nature. For example, you can take power naps because your bed is close by and you can leave a “Be right back” status message on the asynchronous communication application that your company uses and inform your team/department about your temporal break. 

Coworking spaces, cybercafes, and coffee shops offer a novelty in ambiance and can be aesthetically pleasing. The amenity values of such places have the potential to yield feelings of appreciation and foster work productivity and creativity. 

Digital nomads enjoy an entirely different amenity value. Working while traveling/vacationing is becoming very popular. A Singaporean copywriter who has been working in and exploring Europe for the past year, says that it’s the best year of her life. She was able to travel and see the world without forgoing her work. 

Workers reap the following amenity value gains by working remotely:  

• Self-discovery 
• Inner peace  
• Better life and health management  
• Fulfillment of aesthetic needs and personal bucket lists 
• Fun and pleasure 

How do flexible work hours factor in when employees work remotely and accept lower salaries? 

Flexibility is one of the biggest attractions of remote work. But how it plays out reveals why employees prefer sustained flexible schedules over paychecks getting fatter. 

Women employees can efficiently manage the household while earning with the flexibility that comes with remote work even if it means slower wage growth. Through flexible work hours, a female employee can go away to prepare lunch in the kitchen right before mealtime, ensuring her family a freshly prepared, piping hot meal after informing her colleagues that she will return to work in an hour or so – she need not rise so early to prepare food before leaving for the office. She can go out to buy groceries, drop off and pick up her children from school, and do all the miscellaneous chores at home in between and still keep her job. For her, this leeway is unmatched by any extra monetary compensation from her organization, hence the trade-off. 

On the other side, men who work from home also tend to work more for the home, sharing the load. With flexible schedules, men can assume a greater share of caretaking duties and domestic responsibilities. This shift can prove to be more valuable for men than pay raises.  

Remote work does not require much spending so raises do not make a marked difference. 

The cost-effectiveness of remote work is most obvious in cutting the expenditure that on-site work entails.  

There is no need to pay public transport fares for commuting; you also save money on gas if you use your own transportation. 

You can wear bunny slippers, a T-shirt, and a pair of shorts to work.  You don’t need to spend money on your work wardrobe and formal footwear and constantly renew them. You do not need handbags, totes, briefcases, and makeup. This saves a great deal of money. 

Working from home means you get more time that you can use to prepare homemade meals. You don’t need to spend money to eat outside. You can also make healthier food choices, knowing exactly what you put in your body and its nutritional value. You can also exercise more and keep yourself fit. 

Some companies that offer remote work provide work tools for their remote employees that include: 

• Laptop 
• Headset 
• Charger 
• Other gadgets necessary for work 
• Anti-virus and anti-malware 
• Cybersecurity 
• Software tools 

Some companies compensate their remote employees’ fast and stable internet bills. Others even provide desks and chairs for their remote workers’ disposal. If you are required to have your laptop and other gadgets for work, they are still an investment. With careful use, your laptop or desktop can easily last ten years. You can use your laptop for personal use as well. Genashtim’s IT department, Abled Online, often conducts checks on the company’s employees’ computers to ensure optimal working conditions.  

Since remote work offers opportunities to save more money and reduce expenses, raises may not seem all that important. As a bonus, you can learn better money management, monitor outgoing, and incoming money, and invest smartly to grow your money. 

Who else opts for remote work, forgoing cumulative salaries?  

There are groups of people in unique situations who may choose to work remotely and not expect pay raises. 

For PWDS and people with medical conditions, flexible work hours allow them to manage their afflictions and disabilities. They can take breaks and access better palliative care and maintenance therapy with remote work. Rather than being financially dependent on others because of their lack of physical health and function, they can be financially independent by working remotely. Pay raises are not their primary concern, a semblance of human dignity and financial independence by being utilitarian is.  

Seniors with a wealth of experience can work remotely. Often, these retirees’ sights are not set on money. They work to curb their loneliness, not burden their children financially, improve and upkeep brain health, immerse themselves in contemporary scenarios, and stay healthy while augmenting their quality of life. Remote work also provides an opportunity for seniors to learn about technology and have youthful, vibrant, and energetic people as colleagues, peers, and friends. These are what senior workers value, not money. 

There are corporate executives with illustrious careers vying to work for a purpose and deeper meaning. Many of them choose to work remotely for the following reasons: 

• A window for workforce diversity and inclusion  
• Compliance with environmental, social, and governance (ESG)   
• Corporate social responsibilities (CSR)  
• Community improvement by empowering the marginalized through sustainable business and targeted employment opportunities 

Genashtim champions all these factors and prominent corporate executives frequently join the remote for-profit enterprise to fulfill the higher purposes they have for self-satisfaction. For these people, money and raises are a sidebar – they seek greater meaning and value at work rather than more monetary gains. 

How do employers benefit from having workers who are willing to take pay cuts so long as they can work remotely? 

Employers stand to benefit from this shift as well. Employee retention improves and firms can save on employee onboarding and real estate costs. Companies also experience more moderation with wage growth as a cooperative and mutual outcome between employees and employers. 

The benefit is most telling in employees’ morale boost. Workers are voluntarily taking pay cuts in exchange for the ability to work remotely; pay cuts and slower wage growth are not imposed on workers here. Hence, workers are motivated to work better because they gain more non-monetary wise.  

However, as inflation raises the prices of goods and services, employers must raise their remote workers’ wages for them to cope with the economy. Being sensitive to such variables, in this case, employees’ declining living capacities is critical. 

Final words… 

“Money doesn’t buy happiness.” 

Considering remote work, we can safely alter this adage to, “The non-monetary benefits of remote work can buy happiness.”  

We have come to a state where we value things that our salaries cannot buy. More and more people are disassociating a happy, comfortable life from having more money and material ownership. Minimalist lifestyles, digitally nomadic lifestyles, and sustainable living are on the rise and remote work is contributing to such growing choices.  

Hence, this evolutionary dimension of remote work is no surprise – it will only grow as the following proliferate in human populations:  

• Sustainability  
• Happiness index  

• Physical and mental health priorities  
• Gender equality  
• Social equity  
• Poverty alleviation  
• Food security 

• Environmental protection  
• Diversity and inclusion 
• The bridging of multigeneration gaps  
• Growth mindset  
• Globalization 

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