There are many workers with occupations that aren’t jobs possible to be done remotely, the majority actually. But the D.C. area ranks third in the nation for the share of jobs defined as remote-friendly, behind only San Jose and San Francisco.
“D.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,” 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.
“There 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’t 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.
Apartment List’s full report compares the remote work divide in housing cost struggles among the nation’s 50 largest metros.
