Main image of article Companies Already Cutting Remote Technologists' Paychecks: Survey

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed a new era of remote work, companies and technologists everywhere have debated whether working from home should come with a pay cut.

Technologists, of course, have argued that they’re working the same amount from home as they did in an office, and their pay needs to stay the same. While some companies have agreed with that theory, others are arguing that technologists who move to a place with a lower cost of living should see their salaries reduced accordingly. 

For a long time, it seemed like this debate was largely theoretical. But according to a new survey by Blind, which queries technologists about a range of issues, many companies are already adjusting the pay for those employees who’ve moved to new environs. Overall, 46 percent of technologists reported these compensation cuts; here’s the company-by-company breakdown:

“Nearly one in four professionals (24 percent) said their companies have not yet adjusted the pay of relocating employees, but they believe they will do so soon,” added Blind’s blog posting accompanying the data. “AirbnbAmazonApple, Bloomberg, Intel, NVIDIA, Oracle and JPMorgan Chase are among the companies whose remote workers may see a pay-rate change soon.”

Even if companies feel empowered to slice salaries, technologists aren’t happy about it. I didn’t do all that hard work to get promoted to then take a pay cut,” one anonymous Google employee told Reuters back in August after news leaked that the search-engine giant might slice the pay of employees opting for all-remote work

Given technologists’ affinity for working at least part of the time at home, many companies have also moved to embrace a hybridized work model wherein employees only come into the office a few days per week. “We’ll move to a hybrid work week where most Googlers spend approximately three days in the office and two days wherever they work best,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in an email posted to Google’s corporate blog this summer. “Since in-office time will be focused on collaboration, your product areas and functions will help decide which days teams will come together in the office.”

In Dice’s Tech Sentiment Report, some 85 percent of technologists found the prospect of hybrid work anywhere from somewhat to extremely desirable, including 94 percent of younger technologists (i.e., those between 18 and 34 years old). Whether technologists prefer all-remote or hybrid work, though, it’s clear they don’t want to take a pay cut—although that hasn’t seemed to stop some companies from shaving remote employees’ compensation. 

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