Remote workers are out-earning staff in the office in several industries including finance and insurance, new research has revealed. 

According to insights from data company Payscale, the wage gap between remote and non-remote workers in consultancy, manufacturing and tech is more than 50 percent. 

Retail has the largest gap, according to the findings, with staffers who work from home earning an average salary of $67,700 – a huge 92 percent more than their in-office peers who were typically making $35,300. 

There is a 63 percent gap between remote and in-office finance and insurance workers, the study found. 

While remote workers in the industry typically make $79,900 a year, in-office staff have an average annual salary of around $48,900.

Remote workers are out-earning staff in the office in several industries including finance and insurance, new research has revealed

Remote workers are out-earning staff in the office in several industries including finance and insurance, new research has revealed

The industry with the third largest pay gap – at 57 percent – is technology.

According to the research, remote tech workers earn an average of $94,500, while in-office staffers earn $60,300. 

To calculate the findings, Payscale surveyed over 300,000 working US adults between August 2021 and August 2023, defining ‘remote’ as anyone who telecommutes most or all of the time. 

It found manufacturing and agency and consultancy workers also experienced a remote work pay gap of more than 50 percent – at 55 percent and 53 percent respectively.

According to the research, the pay gap between remote and in-office workers in real estate was 48 percent – with staff working from home earning $71,300 on average, and their in-office peers making around $48,100 a year.

Jackson Gruver, Payscale data analyst, told DailyMail.com: ‘The main reason for these pay gaps is occupational differences, rather than discrimination, among remote and non-remote workers. 

‘Non-remote workers are more likely to hold lower wage positions that require on-site work, such as retail clerks and bank tellers. White collar jobs that tend to have higher pay, like software developers and analysts, are capable of being performed remotely.’

These pay discrepancies also imply that companies with return-to-office mandates are restricting remote opportunities to more senior, specialized roles, Ruth Thomas, a pay equity strategist at Payscale, told CNBC.

According to a survey earlier this month by employment marketplace ZipRecruiter, 72 percent of companies said they lost valuable employees as a result of reducing their remote work offerings. 

Remote workers have lower overhead costs and access to a wider pool of potential employers, which could translate to larger take-home pay, said Thomas. 

Those who work from home tend to be experienced professionals who are further along in their careers, which gives them more leverage to negotiate flexible work arrangements, she said.

Since the work from home boom during the pandemic, many companies have clamped down on getting workers back in the office

Since the work from home boom during the pandemic, many companies have clamped down on getting workers back in the office

It comes as separate research revealed the states where the highest proportion of residents are still working from home.

Since the work from home boom during the pandemic, many companies have clamped down on getting workers back in the office. 

Despite this, remote work is still prevalent across the US.  

According to the two latest Census Bureau Household Pulse Surveys, Colorado has the highest proportion of people still working from home of any US state – with 38.3 percent of households reporting having someone working from home at least once a week.

Across the US, seven states – and Washington DC – have a work from home rate which is more than 33 percent. 

Maryland has the second highest rate of households where someone had worked from home at least one day in the past seven – at 36.9 percent. 

Colorado is the state with the highest proportion of people still working from home, according to data from the US Census Bureau

Colorado is the state with the highest proportion of people still working from home, according to data from the US Census Bureau

Some 34.9 percent of households in Utah have someone working remotely, 34.7 percent in Massachusetts and 34.3 percent in Minnesota. 

On the other end of the spectrum, workers in Wyoming are working from home the least. 

Only 12.9 percent of households had someone who worked from home in the last week in the state – where the main industries include mining, agriculture and manufacturing. 

Mississippi has the second lowest work-from-home rate, at 13.5 percent, followed by Alabama at 14.8 percent, North Dakota at 16 percent and Arkansas at 16.2 percent. 

States including Mississippi and Louisiana – which has a work-from-home rate of 16 percent –  were not as able to able to widely embrace remote work due to a reliance on in-person industries including manufacturing and oil and gas.

Overall, approximately 26 percent of households across the US have someone working remotely at least one day a week – down from the early-2021 peak of 37 percent.

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