so i wonder if ppl who work from home continuously in future will take paycuts?
Or will it go the other way, pay more for stay at home and less for onsite at risk?
good question. the short answer is no.
the subject of the personal impact is something everyone i know is discussing. in the experience of myself, my colleagues and friends who are working at home, everyone is putting in way more hours than previous, which were already long to begin with (no natural boundaries to the day - so you get focused on something and you don’t stop). and then there’s the shift in infrastructure and supply cost (e.g. office space, equipment and supplies) from being central and paid as an overhead expense by the employer, to being paid by individual employees. this can currently be written off on individual income taxes (unreimbursed employment expenses), but if the trend gets too large, state and federal tax law may be subject to change (as it stands, it would end up basically being a not insignificant business subsidy - and it’s hard to imagine that wouldn’t draw the attention of law-makers). if my personal experience is any evidence of what is happening more broadly - productivity is going up while overhead cost is going down (perfect gross margin improvement scenario for any business). which is why all indications i’ve seen are that work at home will become a trend that will continue beyond the current situation.
that said, as the economy stabilizes, and starts to grow again, IMHO it would be a tall mountain to climb if on top of the very obvious benefits companies are gaining through having significant portions of their workforce working remotely, they wanted to reduce salaries. at that point, there would be no reasonable arguement for that, and i for one, would tell my employer to go fuck themselves (for reasons stated above).
