Good one-fifth of wage and salary earners in remote work in 2023 – home is the main place of work for more and more people

Women work remotely more often than men

According to Statistics Finland's Quality of Work Life Survey, good one-third (35%) of wage and salary earners aged 18 to 67 worked remotely in 2023. At the beginning of the measurement series in 1997, only a few per cent worked remotely.

As a result of the digitalisation of working life, remote work has become strongly more common in the past 10 to 15 years. It reached its peak during the corona pandemic: in spring 2021, over 40 per cent of wage and salary earners worked remotely, in addition to which eight per cent said they had previously worked remotely during the pandemic, although no longer in spring 2021.

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After the exceptional times, the share of remote work among wage and salary earners decreased but it has remained clearly higher than before the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2023, women worked remotely slightly more often than men, although earlier remote work was more common for men than women.

Above all, upper-level salaried employees worked remotely (68% in 2023) and increasingly also lower-level salaried employees (31%). If we examine only upper-level or lower-level salaried employees, remote work is still more common for men than women in these groups.

Nearly two out of three (64%) wage and salary earners in the central government sector worked remotely in 2023, while in the private sector the share was 45 per cent and in the local government sector 28 per cent. The share was lowest for wage and salary earners in wellbeing services counties and joint county authorities for wellbeing services, where one fifth (20%) worked remotely in 2023.

The data collection method of the Quality of Work Life Survey has changed since 2018. Until 2018, the Quality of Work Life Survey was carried out as a face-to-face interview, but the impact of COVID-19 crisis on working conditions 2021 and the Quality of Work Life Survey 2023 were web inquiries. Therefore, the latest results are not fully comparable with those of 2018 and surveys prior to it.

Good one-fifth of wage and salary earners in remote work for at least one-half of working hours

Good one-fifth (22%) of all wage and salary earners worked remotely at least one-half of their working hours in 2023. Twenty-three per cent of all female wage and salary earners and 21 per cent of male wage and salary earners worked remotely at least one-half of their working hours.

Around one per cent of all wage and salary earners were in remote work in practice throughout their working hours. Men in remote work worked remotely slightly more often than women for all or almost all of their working hours.

The share of remote work in working hours was biggest for wage and salary earners in the central government sector and universities: nearly one-half (48%) of all wage and salary earners in the central government sector and 41 per cent of all wage and salary earners in universities were working remotely at least one-half of their working hours. In the private sector, the corresponding share was nearly one quarter (23%) and in the local government sector 15 per cent. The share of those working remotely at least one-half of their working hours was lowest, eight per cent, among wage and salary earners in wellbeing services counties or joint county authorities for wellbeing services.

More and more people work mostly at home

The Quality of Work Life Survey does not have earlier comparison data on the share of working hours those working remotely spend in remote work. However, one can conclude something from the primary place where wage and salary earners say they are working.

Eighty-six per cent of wage and salary earners that worked remotely in 2018 said they mainly worked in the premises of the employer or customer and only 12 per cent stated home as their main place of work.

In 2023, only good one-half (53%) of remote workers worked mainly in the premises of the employer or customer. By contrast, 45 per cent said they work mainly at home. For just under one per cent of remote workers, the main place of working was such as a free-time residence, a shared coworking space or some other place.

Relative to all wage and salary earners, this means that 73 per cent of wage and salary earners worked in the premises of the employer or customer for most of the time in 2023, and 16 per cent mainly at home. In 2018, the corresponding shares were 87 and 4 per cent. Excluded from these figures are the small share of wage and salary earners who mainly worked outdoors, for example, at a construction site or as workers on means of transport.

In addition to the fact that remote work has become more common, working remotely has become the main form of working for an increasing number of remote workers.

Men can influence the amount of remote work more often than women

Nearly one-half (45%) of remote workers felt they could influence a lot when and how much they work remotely, and nearly one-third (32%) felt they could influence it fairly much. There is a difference between women and men: while as many as 83 per cent of men felt they could influence a lot or fairly much, the corresponding share for women was 71 per cent.

Remote workers in wellbeing services counties and joint county authorities for wellbeing services had the least possibility to influence working remotely (61% a lot or quite a lot), while remote workers in the local government sector had slightly more than this (70%). In the private and central government sectors, around 80 per cent were able to influence their amount of remote work at least quite a lot and at the university the corresponding share was nearly 90 per cent.

Upper-level salaried employees had more possibilities to influence (82% a lot or fairly much) than lower-level salaried employees (70%).

Every third can choose the amount of remote work almost freely

Around every fourth (24%) person working remotely was required to be present at their workplace three to four days per week, in addition to which 27 per cent had to go there at least one day or a couple of days a week. Women worked more often at workplaces where the employer required at least a weekly presence at the workplace.

More than every third (36%) wage and salary earner working remotely said they could choose almost freely how often they worked at their workplace. This corresponds to 13 per cent of all wage and salary earners.

Men had more freedom with respect to their remote and workplace days than women: more than one-half (54%) of men were allowed to either choose the number of their workplace days almost freely or they had the obligation to be present at the workplace only a few days per month. The corresponding share for women was 43 per cent.

The difference between the sexes is connected to the gender structure of employer sectors, for example.

The workplaces of local government (33%) and wellbeing services counties and joint county authorities (53%) required that employees had to be present at the workplace three to four days per week more often than in the other sectors. Only 14 per cent of remote workers in wellbeing services counties and 24 per cent of local government remote workers could choose the number of their workplace days almost freely. These employer sectors are strongly female-dominated.

Considerably fewer workplace days were required from university and central government remote workers: 13 to 15 per cent were expected to work at the workplace three to four days a week. The corresponding share for the private sector was 21 per cent. On the other hand, only just under one-quarter (23%) of remote workers in the central government sector could choose almost freely how often they worked at their workplace, while the respective share in the university and private sectors was good 40 per cent.

Upper-level salaried employees had more possibilities to choose the amount of remote work than lower-level salaried employees.

One in five did not record all remote working hours

Those in remote work were asked in the Quality of Work Life Survey whether they recorded all the hours they were working remotely.

For one in five (20%) of those remote workers who had the obligation to record working hours, some of the hours worked remotely were not recorded as working hours. This was the case most often for upper-level salaried employees, those in supervisory positions and those working at universities. The older the remote workers were, the more often the working hours were not recorded. There was not much difference between women and men.

Some of those in remote work felt that the question of recording working hours did not concern them – they were, for example, managers outside the working time legislation or professionals working total hours.

Remote work has shortcomings in ergonomics more often, but more peaceful working conditions than at the office

Ergonomics is not necessarily followed in the remote work environment in every respect as well as at the employer's premises. It seems to be opposite for peaceful work environment.

Around one in four (26%) of remote workers felt that difficult or uncomfortable work positions were a hampering factor in their remote work environment. Only five per cent of the same persons suffered from difficult or uncomfortable positions in the employer's premises.

On the other hand, only one in ten remote workers named restless work environment as an adverse factor in their remote work, but around one in three (32%) experienced the work environment as restless when working at the workplace.

Lack of ergonomics in remote work was more common for women than men. Women felt clearly more often than men that difficult or uncomfortable work positions (women 34%, men 16%) and repeated one-sided movements (women 16%, men 11%) hampered their remote work.

The survey on the effects of the corona crisis on working life 2021 showed that women had their own workspace or workstation in remote work clearly less often than men; women worked remotely more often than men in places which, in principle, had been reserved for other activities, such as at the dining table or on the living room couch. (Sutela & Pärnänen 2021.)

Every fifth remote worker (women 21%, men 18%, in total 20%) had assessed the working conditions and working environment of remote work together with their employer. This more often concerned lower-level salaried workers (25%) than upper-level salaried workers (17%).

Of the central government sector wage and salary earners working remotely, one fifth (25%) reported an assessment made with the employer, in the university sector only 14 per cent. In other employer sectors, around 20 per cent of remote workers had made such an assessment with their employer.

Two out of five wage and salary earners are not interested in remote work

Over one-half (58%) of wage and salary earners felt in 2023 that remote work was not possible in their work due to their work tasks or employer, or it would at least difficult be to work remotely. However, most of this group would not even have been interested in remote work, even if it had been possible.

In addition to women working remotely more commonly (37%) than men (33%), they were also more often (24%) interested in remote work than men (20%), even though it would be impossible or at least difficult in their present job. Correspondingly, there were slightly more men in whose work it would have been possible to work remotely but they did not do it or were not interested in it (women 3%, men 5%).

Around 70 per cent of wage and salary earners in the local government sector and wellbeing services counties and joint county authorities for wellbeing services felt that remote work was not possible in their job. For wage and salary earners in the central government sector the corresponding share was 27 per cent, for wage and salary earners in the university sector 25 per cent and in the private sector 58 per cent.

There were large differences between the socio-economic groups. Only 13 per cent of upper-level salaried employees belonged to the group “not interested and would not be possible”, while the corresponding share for lower-level salaried employees was 33 per cent and for workers 66 per cent. However, nearly 30 per cent of workers would have been interested in remote work in principle – even though it was not possible for them.