Possibly freed from daily trips to the office, the typical American employee now dwells nearly three times farther from their job than before the pandemic, according to research.
An analysis released on March 3 by a payroll software firm and the Stanford WFH Group indicates that workers' average commuting distance to their employer increased from 10 miles in 2019 to 27 miles in 2023. Gusto, a payroll software firm, and the Stanford WFH Group, a team studying work-from-home trends.
The research examines payroll information from about 5,800 small and midsize businesses from 2018 to 2023. Distances were determined by matching employees' addresses with employer locations.
The data reveals that the gap between workers and their employers is most prominent for those who began their jobs after the pandemic. On average, workers hired in March 2020 or later resided 35 miles from their employer in December 2023, which is more than double the distance of people hired before March 2020.
While the payroll data does not expressly demonstrate that individuals living far from their employer are leveraging hybrid or remote work arrangements, the findings align with years of research by the Stanford WFH Group indicating the significant impact the pandemic had on where work is carried out.
Before the pandemic, only about 7% of paid workdays were spent at home. In February, the proportion of days worked from home was 28%, according to the group's latest Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes released on March 5.
Researchers attribute the work-from-home trend as a contributing factor.
Due to the reduction in commuting to an office because of working from home, workers could move farther from their employer or pursue a job that may have been unattainable before due to distance, the researchers explained. commute to an office — or eliminates the commute entirely — workers could move farther from their employer or seek a job that might have been impossible before because of the distance, the researchers said.
This was observed during the pandemic, as people searched for larger homes with space for a home office, according to Jose Maria Barrero, an assistant professor of finance at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) Business School and a member of the Stanford WFH Group.
Barrero highlights the increase in the number of workers living a considerable distance from their employer as the clearest correlation. The study indicates that 5.5% of workers lived over 50 miles from their employers at the end of 2023 — a rise from 0.8% in 2019. This rate is much higher for workers in certain industries. The researchers discovered that over 20% of tech workers lived 100 miles or more from their employer.
“Once you have somebody living significantly far away from their assigned work location, it sort of has to be fully remote,” Barrero stated.
The study also indicates that groups with the greatest interest in or best access to work-from-home opportunities are residing farthest from their employer. According to the study:
- People in their 30s (prime parenting age, the study notes) lived the farthest from their jobs compared with other age groups.
- Office workers — specifically those working in tech, finance and insurance, and professional services — lived farther from their employer, on average, than those in industries where working from home is less feasible (like construction).
- People who earn over $100,000 per year lived further away from their employers compared to other income groups.
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