Majority Of Europeans Unwilling To Take Pay Cut To Work From Home: EU Central Bank

Authored by Guy Birchall via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Most Europeans would be unwilling to take a pay cut to work from home, according to a European Central Bank (ECB) survey published on Sept. 25.

The European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, on Mar. 16, 2023. Heiko Becker/Reuters

The portion of eurozone workers aged 20 to 64, who are not self-employed and at least partially working from home, has doubled from 11.7 percent in 2019 to 22.4 percent in 2024, according to data from Eurostat.

The survey found that 33.6 percent of employees reported working from home at least two days per week since May 2024.

According to figures from the ECB, the majority of workers in the Eurozone, 55.7 percent, still do not work from home.

Hybrid working, or operating between home and workplace, was the most common form of arrangement for the 44.4 percent of people who do at least some remote work.

Of those hybrid workers, 11.9 percent signed in from home one day a week, and 21.9 percent for between two and four days a week.

Some 10.6 percent of respondents worked entirely remotely.

“Overall, a hybrid working pattern appears to be the preferred remote working option, with most hybrid workers (84 percent) expressing satisfaction with their current arrangement,” the ECB said.

“Interestingly, 43 percent of employees who work fully remotely would prefer to spend fewer days working away from the office. This suggests that remote working may be driven more by necessity or employer requirements than by preference.”

The ECB survey also found that 70 percent of employees would not be willing to accept any pay cut to either continue or begin working from home.

Of those who would accept a reduction in remuneration, it found that 13 percent would take a pay cut of between 1 percent and 5 percent, and 8 percent would accept a reduction of between 6 percent and 10 percent.

“The average pay cut that employees would accept to work two or three days per week from home is 2.6 percent,” the ECB said.

“This is significantly lower than other estimates in the empirical literature.”

Other analyses it cited included a survey of German workers in 2024, which found they would be willing to accept a reduction of 7.7 percent of their pay to work fully remotely.

Another survey of workers in the United States tech sector said some would accept a cut of 25 percent in their pay packets for a remote position instead of an in-person role.

The ECB found that employees who work from home more frequently would be willing to accept a higher pay cut to preserve their current arrangement, but that cut was only of 4.6 percent.

The survey also found that younger workers were more likely to value the ability to work from home, as were employees with children or those who had long commutes.

Alongside this, the ECB found that other factors such as income, education level, and gender seemed to have little impact on the value workers placed on flexible working.