Original Coverage & Source Attribution: news.outsourceaccelerator.com
Key facts
- Returning to the office costs U.S. workers about $6,736 a year, Resume.io estimates.
- That equals 9.3% of a typical salary.
- Costs rise to about $16,538 a year for parents paying for childcare.
- Commuting accounts for about $2,751 of annual costs.
Source: HR Dive
WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES — Going back to the office costs U.S. workers an estimated $6,736 a year, or 9.3% of a typical salary, rising to about $16,538 for parents who pay for childcare while they are at work.
Resume builder Resume.io called the expense an “RTO tax.”
Commuting drives the cost
Most of the expense comes from commuting, with workers spending about $2,751 a year on public transit and gas, HR Dive reported.
More than half said their costs had risen in the past year, and 19% said costs had gone up “a lot.”
Workers also lose about 23 full eight-hour workdays to commuting each year and about 17 days preparing for the office.
The analysis used an August Pollfish survey of 1,000 full-time U.S. employees who work in the office at least one day a week, across 36 metros, with an average attendance of 4.18 days a week.
“Going to work has quietly become one of the biggest costs in a lot of people’s budgets,” wrote Bethany Watson, a digital PR manager at Resume.io.
Candidates do the math
Amanda Augustine, resident career expert at Resume.io, said candidates now weigh commuting time and costs when deciding which jobs to accept.
“Candidates are looking at job opportunities differently than they did before the pandemic,” Augustine said.
She said candidates are working out how often they will commute, how much time it adds and what gas, parking, transit, childcare and meals will cost.
She said employers can offset the cost with pre-tax commuter benefits, transport stipends, hybrid schedules, flexible start times, subsidized meals and childcare support.
“Employers may not be able to eliminate the RTO tax, but acknowledging that it exists matters,” Augustine said.
“Ultimately, candidates are asking themselves, ‘Is what I’m getting from this opportunity worth what this job is asking of me?’” she said.
For employers pushing return-to-office mandates, the figures put a price on what in-office roles ask of workers, which can raise the pay needed to hire.
That makes remote work and hybrid work models, including roles delivered by distributed teams, a cost lever as well as a perk.
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Disclosure: Outsource Accelerator uses AI tools in the backend of its editorial workflow. Every article is reviewed and verified by a human editor before publication.
