More than a third of employees would take a pay cut to keep working from home full time, a new study says

• A third of workers would accept a pay cut in exchange for permanent remote work, a study suggests.
• Reed, a recruitment firm, polled 2,002 UK workers on remote work and pay.

Workers are split over whether they'd accept a pay cut to work remotely full-time, as a new study finds that as many as a third say they would.

Reed.co.uk, a UK recruitment website, polled 2,002 working adults for their views on remote working, pay, and how flexible they felt their employer had been.

Of the people polled, 35% said that they were willing to take a paycut in exchange for permanent remote working. Slightly more, 37%, said they wouldn't, while 19% said they couldn't work remotely. The remainder said they weren't sure.

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Just over a quarter of respondents said people working full time from the office should be paid more - and 23% said that these people should be prioritized for promotion.

Some employers and staff were battling over whether people should be paid different salaries based on where they worked before the surge in the Delta variant pushed back return-to-office plans. As companies start to reopen, the debate could be back on the agenda.

The findings demonstrate the challenges employers face with hybrid working policies, according to Reed.

"The key thing is to ensure employees have a certain level of choice and autonomy over how, when and where they spend their working day - keeping in mind the fact that what works for one group of people won't necessarily work for another," Reed managing director Simon Wingate said.

When it comes to remote pay, time in office, and vaccine mandates, employers risk alienating some of their staff at a time when people are quitting their jobs at record numbers.

"In a competitive labour market, businesses must think creatively and listen carefully to their staff to provide a tailored approach that works on both an individual and collective level," Wingate said. "This will help to improve their chances of attracting and retaining the best talent."

Companies basing pay on where an employee lives is nothing new. In the UK, 49% of companies already practiced some form of pay variation, according to a February study by the Chartered Institute of Professional Development - but the rise of remote working has brought the issue up the agenda. Some employers argue that if a person wants to work remotely from a region where the cost of living is lower, they should be paid less.

Facebook and Google are among the companies that have discussed plans to adjust the salaries of remote workers - to the uproar of some staff.

A spokesperson for Google told Reuters that the company had always based salaries on location, after a leaked Google pay calculator suggested some remote workers could get a 25% pay cut.

Other companies have taken a different approach: Reddit, for example, is paying all workers as if they lived in San Francisco, regardless of where they're based.