What policymakers need to know about the latest data on telework

Happy Friday, LSS readers! This week, my remote work policy brief for the Rockefeller Institute of Government was published and it provides the latest data by state and city on remote work trends. Below, I’ll run through the key takeaways and provide some additional context from my notes and other interviews.

This week on the Public Money Pod

Something to think about: public sector benefits. Franzel is tracking flexible benefits such as access to remote work and child care subsidies, which account for a small but growing share of benefits offered. It’s a reminder that retirement benefits—now much diminished following the Great Recession—aren’t as powerful of a recruiting tool as they used to be.

Next week, we’ll talk with the National Association of State Retirement Administrators’ research director, Keith Brainard about the status of pensions and more.

Access to remote work is an equity issue 

The idea that office workers, who are usually higher-earners, are more likely to work from home is intuitive. But the vast divide in incomes and therefore access to remote work is still really startling.

Source: U.S. Census data; Rockefeller Institute of Government

These numbers underscore the broader economic and health equity gaps that the pandemic has served to highlight: That those with means had the option to work from home and shelter themselves from the coronavirus, while those who could least afford to get sick were often on the front lines.

Policy implications: This divide, sadly but unsurprisingly, also occurs along racial lines. Those who identify as Caucasian or of Asian descent were much more likely to report working remotely than those who identify as Hispanic or Black. The numbers show how access to remote work is also a proxy for financial stability and how that access runs along socio-economic lines. 

It’s why efforts to close that gap (such as universal basic income pilots, utility assistance programs and investments in food security) have been a focus of policymakers since the start of the pandemic.

Case study examples

Takoma Park (Md.) Devotes Half of its ARPA Spending Plan to Advancing Equity

Chula Vista creates a Digital Equity and Inclusion Plan

Atlanta’s MARTA Hosts Farmers Markets at Underserved Rail Stations

Remote work is here to stay

Admittedly, I’ve been a remote work advocate since I started enjoying the flexibility of a hybrid work-from-home schedule nearly 10 years ago when I was at Governing magazine. It started off as two days a week at home, then became three. Then we moved to farm country and it became four days a week and some weeks I didn’t go into the office at all. And it wasn’t just me—my coworkers developed similar habits over the years.

Once you’ve had a taste of it, it’s hard to go back. For me, not commuting saved me at least two hours a day (and that was back when I lived in the D.C. suburbs) in which I could get annoying chores done and other small tasks, thus freeing up my weekends for actual fun and time with my family.

I say all this because there are many who point out that remote work has declined since the early months of the pandemic. Of course this is true; we are not in the middle of a health emergency crisis with no vaccines like we were in 2020. What’s important to note from my research is that the reported rates of remote work are leveling out and remain high. Let’s get into specifics.