Remote Work is Here, Are Your Remote Pay Practices Ready?

We recently conducted an informal survey to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affected our customers’ opinions and policies about remote work and remote pay practices.

Survey participants included CEOs, HR professionals, and compensation analysts from pre-IPO and venture-backed companies of up to 200 employees.

Here’s a summary of the results.

The new now: Remote and hybrid work are here to stay — but may not be valued equally.

For many companies, fully remote and hybrid work arrangements will become permanent post-pandemic policy. 

• 59% had a hybrid or fully remote workforces before the pandemic
• 96% expect a quarter or more of their team to work from home post-pandemic
• 86% are currently fully remote or leave the choice up to employees

However, the perceived value of these work arrangements isn’t rising as quickly as their popularity. 

• 73% value remote work the same or more than in-office work
• 27% value remote work slightly less than in-office work
  

Companies today pay current employees — and plan to pay future workers — similarly, wherever and however they work. Remote pay needs a facelift.

While the world’s fastest-growing businesses are embracing a distributed workforce, their remote pay practices haven't evolved to address salary ranges in different geographic markets. 

• 86% of respondents have the same compensation practices for both in-office and remote employees.
• 82% have the same compensation practices for full-time and contract employees regardless of their work location.
• 77% are not considering reducing pay for current or future remote employees. 

Want to learn more about remote pay? Watch our webinar, “Compensating Remote Teams”, and download our guide, “Strategies to Attract, Retain, and Inspire Today’s Distributed Workforce.”

Base remote pay is the most significant salary difference between in-office and remote workers. 

For companies who have a different pay structure for remote employees, base pay is the key factor.

• 77% of respondents reported a significant variance in base pay
• 41% reported variance in equity 

Data is critical for the shift to remote pay and remote work. 

Nearly all respondents use local comp data to determine compensation for remote or hybrid employees.

• 96% said they require information about standards for compensation based on experience, department, role, and location to determine pay

Want to learn more about benchmarking? Watch our webinar, “What’s the Big Deal About Benchmarking,” and download our guide, “Guide to Compensation Benchmarking.”

Also critical: good communication, based on comp data-driven strategies. 

Respondents are most concerned about communication and connectivity for distributed teams, and how to keep high performers longer in a competitive market for talent. 

• 45% are most concerned with maintaining culture and productivity in a new working environment
• 32% are most concerned about losing top talent and paying competitively

Unexpected problems may be on the horizon for companies with remote workforces

As companies adjust compensation practices for its distributed teams, it’s important to adhere to compensation best practices and frameworks for consistency.

• 73% said they have a strategy to ensure pay equity
• Only 59% percent have a defined compensation philosophy, which calls the previous statistic into question.

What is compensation philosophy? Read the introductory blog linked in the prior sentence. For a deeper dive, you can also download a Guide to Compensation Philosophy.

You can also start using our compensation software for remote pay for free!

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Caitlin Allen is VP Marketing at OpenComp and has served in similar roles at Happy Returns, Lyft, and Andreessen Horowitz. She also writes about topics including marketing, sales compensation, and happiness. Connect with her on LinkedIn here.