Main image of article Tech Workers Would Trade Pay to Telecommute

Chart: Tech Workers will Take a Pay Cut to Telecommute

Tech workers like telecommuting so much that they're willing to take a pay cut to get it, according to a recent survey by GetVoIP, a comparison shopping service for remote workers, businesses and homes. Fifty three percent of the 501 technology workers surveyed indicated they are willing to accept reduced compensation in order to telecommute. How much of a reduction you may ask? An average of 7.9 percent. To put this into dollars and cents, a software developer earning $90,530 a year would be willing to forgo $7,152. Surprisingly, the survey found 31.9 percent would accept a reduction of up to 10 percent of their annual income for the convenience. Even more surprising, 6.7 percent said they're comfortable kissing off more than 31 percent of their annual pay in order to work from home. That would represent nearly $28,900 using our software developer's rate of pay. However, employers need to determine the productivity tradeoff, the survey noted. For example, if a company loses 10 percent of an employee's productivity by allowing them to telecommute, the 7.9 percent it might save in salary would be a net loss. Maybe that's what Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was thinking when she put the kibosh on telecommuting as a way to drive more interaction among the company's employees.