There are many workers with occupations that aren鈥檛 jobs possible to be done remotely, the majority actually. But the D.C. area ranks , behind only San Jose and San Francisco.
鈥淒.C. is an area where we see a really high concentration of remote-friendly jobs. A lot of knowledge sector work is in the D.C. area. When we look throughout the D.C. metro as a whole, 42% of jobs we classify as being remote-friendly,鈥� said Chris Salviati, at Apartment List.
Apartment List conducted research to compare cost-burdened households based on those with remote-friendly jobs and those with on-site only jobs.
It defines cost-burdened as those spending more than 30% of their household income on housing costs, either mortgage or rent. Those who are, are considered moderately cost-burdened. Those spending more than 50% are considered severely cost-burdened.
In the D.C. region, 25% of those with on-site occupations live in cost-burdened households, compared to 15% of those with remote-friendly occupations. Among severely cost-burdened households, those with on-site occupations are more than twice as likely as remote-friendly workers to be cost-burdened.
It’s even more pronounced among rental households. Among renters, the cost-burden rate for onsite workers in the D.C. area is 39%.
The D.C. metro, along with New York City and Denver, have the largest gaps between remote-friendly and on-site workers. These are also some of the most expensive housing markets, putting financial strain on lower-paid on-site workers.
The simple answer for the income disparity is that remote-friendly jobs just pay better than on-site only occupations.
But Salviati said that’s not strictly the case.
鈥淭here are some jobs that need to be done on-site that are high paying, like a doctor, and there are some remote-friendly occupations that aren鈥檛 so well paid,” Salviati said.
“But overall, when we look throughout the D.C. region, the remote-friendly occupations have a median income that is more than double that of on-site occupations.”
The median income for a remote-friendly job in the D.C. region is $85,000 a year.
compares the remote work divide in housing cost struggles among the nation’s 50 largest metros.
