Remote employees blame Biden-fueled inflation and skyrocketing gas and childcare costs for their continued need to work from home.
Now that coronavirus positivity rates are down, proponents of remote work no longer blame their desire to stay home on safety concerns, but instead on the financial implications of their daily office routine, a much higher price tag than when the US closed in. March 2020.
Consumer prices reached 8.5 percent last month, nearly double what they were in March 2021, and the highest increase in the inflation rate the country has seen since 1981.
Employers across the country are said to be struggling to return their workforces to fully in-person operations due to the rising cost of living.
If employers are like, “Hey, yeah, you need to come to the office, you need to spend this money on gas, and you have to eat at the office,” people will go: “That’s too expensive,” said Erika Lance, chief human resources officer at Florida-based security software company KnowBe4, Inc The New York Times.
Remote employees blame Biden-fueled inflation and skyrocketing costs of gas and childcare for their continued need to work from home.
KnowBe4, which recently studied the needs of its 1,500 employees as it planned its return-to-office strategy, found that most workers were worried about rising gas and food costs.
Employees used the company’s internal message boards to offer advice on where to find cheap fuel as the national gas averaged $4.33 a gallon last month, according to data collected by AAA.
This time last year, the national average for gas prices was about $2.87 per gallon, which is a significant increase from pre-pandemic rates for 2019, which were about $2.60 per gallon.
Workers also noted how an iced latte from Dunkin’ Donuts rose to $3.99 from $3.70 last year, a trend also seen at other restaurant chains. Employees mentioned how this year the Sweetgreen Salad cost $11.95 from $11.20 last year or how the Potbelly Sandwich went from $7.20 to $7.65.
Consumer prices reached 8.5% last month, nearly double what they were in March 2021
Inflation rates last month reached 8.5 percent, the highest rate in 40 years
The company also tried to mitigate the effects of food costs by providing workers with snacks, but managers were met with concerns about family costs, such as higher rates for childcare and dog sitters.
In 2021, the average family in the United States spent $13,700 annually on child care, according to the Center for American Progress, up more than $3,000 from 2020 rates.
From 2016 to 2020, childcare rates were relatively stagnant, rising by only a few hundred dollars a year, according to ChildCare Aware of America. Data for 2022 is not yet readily available.
“Telecommuting started as a safety measure,” Becky Frankiewicz, president of the US group Manpower, told Thew. ‘Now it is a measure of cost containment.’
It was: “I don’t want to take a trip.” Now it is: “I can’t afford commuting.”
Frankiewicz noticed that some of her employees were looking for ways to shorten their commute times to manage costs.
The staff were reportedly concerned about the cost of transportation. The national gas average was $4.33 a gallon last month
This time last year, the national average for gas prices was about $2.87 per gallon, which is a significant increase from pre-pandemic rates for 2019, which were about $2.60 per gallon.
Likewise, I shared how employers across the country were offering gas cards, transportation vouchers, and ride-sharing options to help ease the burden of inflation.
Companies nationwide are also seeing increasing demands for work flexibility and raises, despite the fact that wages rose about 5.6 percent last year to combat the cost of inflation.
Several employers told the Times they were planning to offer raises because a talent shortage caused by the pandemic has made it easier for workers to be hunted by competitors.
Texas-based e-commerce company OrderMyGear, for example, has tripled its compensation budget in recent years.
Principals were also met with concerns about family costs, such as higher rates of childcare and dog sitters. In 2021, the average family in the United States spent $13,700 annually on child care, up $3,000 from 2020
Some companies claim that they wait to see if inflation rates stabilize before adjusting wages.
“We’re waiting a little bit to see where things go back to normal before we make those kinds of adjustments,” Melissa Yates-May, head of human resources at Cambium Learning Group, told the paper.
While each company struggles to return to work differently, the data revealed that overall companies that declined the option to allow remote flexibility experienced increased pressure to increase wages.
“It’s a perfect storm,” Frankovich said. “We are ready to go back to work, now can you afford to go back to work?”
Meanwhile, office occupancy nationwide has risen to more than 40 percent — the highest level since March 2020 — but remains low compared to pre-pandemic levels.
The data also showed that the majority of the in-person workforce was comprised of non-executive employees while most executives, although they lead the return-to-work effort, remain at least partially remote.
At least 35 percent of non-executive employees return to the office five days a week, while only 19 percent of executives return, bloomberg open.
Analysts claim there is a double standard for regular workers and CEOs—defined as anyone with the title of president, partner, or president—in returning to the position.
Bank of America and Google are reportedly urging their employees to return to their offices, but allowing bosses to be exempt from this requirement, the news outlet claimed.
Some analysts also argue that the push to get back to work is not to boost personal collaboration, as chiefs claim, but instead to justify the cost of long-term leases for modern offices in prime real estate areas.
Brian Elliott, CEO of Future Forum, whose company has been surveying workers throughout the pandemic, claims that employees “dissatisfied” with the flexibility their employer offered them say they will “definitely” look for new work this year.
The survey reportedly showed that a sense of work-life balance decreased for full-body workers by twice as much as those with flexible work options.
“Top-down mandates generally don’t work,” Elliott told Bloomberg. Being in the office gives you the illusion of control, but it’s just an illusion. This does not mean that they produce.
He recommends that as companies continue to discuss return-to-the-office policies, leadership should offer flexibility in schedule and location in order to retain their best talent even if it requires the company to “break cultural traditions and develop new courses of action.”
Despite the decline in the in-person workforce and the apparent desire of many workers to seek new jobs, employment rates nationwide remain strong.
Claims for unemployment two weeks ago reached their lowest level since 1968. The four-week average of jobless claims, which skips week-to-week ups and downs, rose from 170,000 to 172,000. Weekly claims for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, remained below the pre-pandemic level of 225,000.
Last week, the US Department of Labor revealed that unemployment remained at a historically low level, Reflecting a strong job market in the United States with near-record job creation and few layoffs.
Claims for unemployment two weeks ago reached their lowest level since 1968, as the four-week average of jobless claims, which skips ups and downs from week to week, rose from 170,000 to 172,000.
Two years after the coronavirus pandemic plunged the economy into a brief but devastating recession, American workers are enjoying extraordinary job security.
Weekly claims for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, remained below the pre-pandemic level of 225,000.
Last year, employers added 6.7 million jobs, and they have added an average of 560,000 additional jobs each month so far in 2022.
The unemployment rate, which rose to 14.7% in April 2020 in the depths of the COVID-19 recession, is just 3.6%, barely above its lowest point in 50 years. There is a record 1.7 jobs for every unemployed American.
Fewer than 1.48 million Americans were collecting traditional unemployment benefits in the week of April 2.
