Employees Moving Further and Further Away From Workplace

Big companies may be cracking the whip to get employees to return from their homes to their company offices, but small and mid-sized companies tend to shrug their shoulders and accept hybrid or fully remote work as their new reality.

A new report from researchers at the Hoover Institution and the payroll and employee benefits firm Gusto puts some flesh on the bones of the remote work phenomenon. It describes which groups are working farthest from their employers and speculates on why.

One of the report’s most striking findings is the following: “Compared to 2019 levels, employees’ average distance from their home to their employer has risen 2.7x: The mean distance to work rose from 10 miles in 2019 to 27 miles at the end of 2023. The share of workers living more than 50 miles from their employer rose more than five-fold, from 0.8% to 5.5%.”

Millennials and the highest earners are most likely to live farthest away. For 35–39-year-olds, the drive has risen 190% from 10 to 29 miles. For millennials aged 30-34, the distance from home to work has climbed 180% from 11 to 31 miles on average. These are signs, the report said, that millennials are “taking advantage of the flexibility remote and hybrid work provides as they reach parenting age.”

By December 2023, driving distance for small companies’ highest earners rose to 42 miles, likely reflecting the concentration of these workers in professional sectors suited to remote work, according to the report. But staff making $10,000-$50,000 also moved further out, increasing distance to work from 11 to 18 miles.

The trend has been driven by workers hired since the pandemic. “The mean distance among workers hired in March 2020 or later has risen from 19 miles in March 2020 to 35 miles in December 2023,” the report noted. Before the pandemic, the average was 16. “This rise could be driven by businesses hiring remote workers into new roles created after the pandemic, as remote work became one of the most sought-after features in any job posting,” it stated. “Business owners can find new talent they need by looking beyond the geographic confines of a specific work location.”

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