Many Americans who prefer to work remotely would take a reduction in pay to continue doing so, a survey has found.

The State Of Remote Work In 2022, a survey of 3,500 American workers by background check company GoodHire, found that three fifths would be willing to take a pay cut to maintain remote working status, with some suggesting that they would take a reduction of as much as half of their earnings to avoid returning to the office.

Despite the numbers of those who wish to continue to work from home, the survey revealed that almost three quarters of respondents said companies should pay in-office employees more than their work-from-home colleagues. Two thirds are concerned that managers view full-time remote workers as lazier.

Those findings may have caused a shift in perspective.

Three quarters said they would consider applying for a job that requires in-office work five days per week, while one third would quit or start a remote job search if forced to return to the office full-time. That number is down from 45 percent in 2021.

Only 44 percent said that they preferred working at home, down from 68 percent last year. Additionally, one in five said they did not care and 37 percent favored returning to the office. These findings may be due to a perception that those workers absent from the office would be excluded from important team meetings and projects – a concern expressed by more than half of those surveyed.

The specter of an impending economic downturn hovers over this debate. The survey found that, the event of a recession, almost eight in 10 “felt that remote employees would be first on the proverbial chopping block.”