Will COVID-19 cause workers to want to work from home long term?

For millions of workers COVID-19 prompted a move from on-site work to work-from-home. Most want some WFH to continue. In fact, they're willing to accept a 7% pay cut, on average, to keep working from home two or more days per week.

But that's not actually a big change from pre-pandemic preferences. About half the workers assigned to an experimental WFH program in 2010 decided to keep working from home when the program ended. And in 2016, call center applicants were willing to take an 8% lower wage, on average, to work from home two days per week.

Some of the pandemic-induced shift to remote work will stick, given that firms and workers have sunk time and money into WFH arrangements. Highly educated, high earning workers are especially likely to continue WFH. If there's a widespread shift to remote work, though, it'll be driven by firms, not by a sudden change in what workers want.