Remote Work in the United States: Sectoral Analysis of Salary Trends

Since its beginning, the COVID-19 pandemic brought a landslide of changes to the United States. Perhaps one of the most enduring has been a shift in how we work. Specifically, the concept of remote work saw significant growth within the United States between 2020 and 2023. Both remote work and hybrid work arrangements have become ubiquitous in recent years. Discussion has started to arise surrounding the long-lasting implications of remote work. Given the anticipated reduction in costs for employers, we hypothesized that remote work would be associated with higher salaries. Sectors were compared using the percentage of employees working remotely in a sector and the average salary of said sector. A positive correlation was observed between the two. However, this correlation was not observed when adjusting for potential confounding variables, such as education and job tenure.