Work from home seems to be growing – but not equal in all workplaces

For better or for worse, remote work seems here to stay — but not equally for all Canadians.

A report by Statistics Canada released Thursday shows the percentage of workers clocking most of their hours from home last November was around 20 per cent, down from 40 per cent in April 2020, but still a substantial increase from a pre-COVID 7.1 per cent in May 2016.

And it’s typically highly educated and high-paid Canadians that can mostly take advantage of working remotely in big cities, the report showed.

For example, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal offered a larger share of remote work possibilities in 2022.

And about 45 per cent of dual-income couples in the top 10 per cent of wage earners had both spouses working remotely from April 2020 to June 2021 — nine times the rate found for couples in the bottom 10 per cent of earners.

“Working from home didn’t cause this inequality,” said Jim Stanford, economist and director of the Centre for Future Work. “But, in a way, the pandemic hit was doubly unfair because the biggest burden was borne by those who had lower wages to start with.”

He added that talk of remote work becoming the ‘new normal’ poses “a very narrow and biased view of how the labour market works,” and that “most Canadians, even during the pandemic, didn’t have the opportunity to work from home.”

 

 

 

The pandemic shift in work culture had a significant impact on residential and commercial real estate markets, hurt businesses in once bustling downtowns and smashed earnings of public transit operators by reducing ridership. On the other hand, it enabled many Canadians to improve work-life balance and save time as well as money on commutes, clothing and dining out.

It has also likely helped households lower direct greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, the report said.

In essence, it changed many of the ways society operates. But, still, millions of Canadian workers aren’t reaping the benefits of remote work.

Remote work is also seen as a pathway for greater employment opportunities in different parts of the world. But, while the number of Canadians working for an employer in a different province or abroad grew significantly since the pandemic, it remains low, according to the report.

 

As of June 2022, 87,000 employees working from home reported to an office in another country, while 179,000 employees worked for an employer in another province.

And the data shows that most men and women believe they accomplish the same amount of work or more from home compared to an office.

“I don’t think there’s empirical evidence to support the claim that work from home has been bad for productivity,” said Stanford.

Workers’ ideas of productivity, however, might not align with their employers’, the study said.

 

This article was reported by The Star