Telework, Wages, and Time Use in the United States

Abstract

Remote work is rapidly increasing in the U.S. Using data on full-time wage and salary workers from the 2017–2018 American Time Use Survey Leave and Job Flexibilities Module, we estimate hourly wage differentials for teleworkers and compare how workers allocate their time over the day when they work from home rather than the office. We find some teleworkers earn a wage premium, but it varies by gender, parental status, and teleworking intensity. Men, but not women, who work most of the week from home earn a wage premium. Among occasional teleworkers, we find a wage premium for fathers and women without children. Using time diaries, we find teleworkers spend less time on commuting and grooming activities but more time on leisure activities and more time with family on work-at-home days than office days, and female teleworkers spend more time on household production activities. We do not find differences in workers’ weekly hours by teleworker status, but male teleworkers on their work-from-home days work about 37 fewer minutes on weekday workdays than on-site workers, suggesting teleworkers are spreading their hours over the week.

Keywords: remote work, working from home, telework, wages, time use, commuting

JEL Classification: J22, J31, D13