Can a pay cut ever be considered positive for employees? According to a study conducted by GetVoIP last month, the majority of tech professionals answered yes. In an effort to gauge the tech sector’s receptiveness to wage reduction, GetVoIP posed the question “How big of a pay cut would you take in order to work from home?” What they found, tech workers are willing to take an average of a 7.9% pay cut in order to telecommute.
While you may be thinking that this seems like a high price to pay to work in your pajamas, researchers found that the 53% of tech workers who would take a pay reduction of some sort to work from home had pretty solid backing for the potential decision. Given the slow economy where businesses can’t afford to give raises, many employees are willing to take compensation perks in lieu of pay. In addition, workers who trade in their daily drive for a telecommute generally cite better work life balance, less stress and more family time for making the switch.
A Closer Look at the Stats
In order to generate the data provided by this study, GetVoIP researchers asked 501 tech employees how big of a pay cut they would be willing to take in order to work from home. They collected and tallied the responses using the Google Consumer Surveys tool to determine the average pay cut as well as the percentage of employees willing to take any pay cut. While a total 53% of tech employees were willing to take a pay cut, the responses for the percentage were quite diverse. In fact, many employees were willing to take an extremely large pay cut in exchange for the right to work from home. So exactly how big are we talking? Check out the numbers to see for yourself:
- 47% responded that they would not take a pay cut to telecommute
- 31.9% responded that they would take up to a 10% pay cut to telecommute
- 4.7% responded that they would accept a 11-20% pay cut to telecommute
- 3.5% responded that they would take a 21-30% pay cut to telecommute
- 6.7% responded that they would take more than a 31% pay cut to telecommute
While the results varied to include even larger pay cut percentages, the 7.9% average was still pretty high considering the dollar amount it’s associated with. Based on the average salary of a tech worker ($85,619), they’re willing to accept an average of a $6,764 pay reduction a year to work from home!
What this means for Employers
The results found in this study were able to deliver surprising numbers as the opportunity to work from home is very appealing to tech workers. The nature of their work makes it highly adaptable to an out-of-office environment, whereas other fields might not find this to be the case. In summary, while this may seem like a great opportunity for employers to save on pay by making a fair compromise with their employees, the situation requires the right employee and the right employer. While the potential trade-off of decreased productivity for a 7.9% reduction in employee pay may be worth it for some employers, others find that the savings aren’t worth the toll they take on overall production. If, however, productivity could be maintained, both employers and willing employees could benefit greatly from this employment situation.
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Click here to read the full study report by GetVoIP