The trend of working from home is becoming more popular than ever, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of today, there are now over 19 million infections brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 12 million recoveries, and more than 730,000 deaths.
It has urged people to leave their offices for a while, and set up work-from-home (WFH) spaces where they could work and earn. There are companies that have ensured benefits for their WFH employees until the year 2021, the Wall Street Journal stated.
The work-from-home setup has its own pros and cons, but when it comes to personal finance, it is interesting to find out what the stand of the employees are.
A survey was conducted by CouponLawn, seeking information from individuals and knowing if they need financial therapy or assistance in the time of the pandemic. Financial therapy, combining wealth and psychological coaching, is deemed beneficial for employees who may need to manage their finances better.
The survey launched in July 2020 on MTurk, gathering information from 1,100 work-from-home workers based in the US only. We specifically asked our survey participants to indicate their age so we can see which generation they belong to.
Moreover, the Gen X or people from 38 to 56 years old are at 30.4 percent, while the Baby Boomers, or those from 57 to 64 years old are at 6.6 percent. Most of the respondents are 24 to 37 years old.
The income levels among the work-from-home employees varied, with most of respondents earning between $50,000 to $74,999 .
In the work-from-home setup, there are various job responsibilities that the employees may find themselves into. CouponLawn has included these in the details.
When the United States released official lockdown measures during the last days of March, the companies followed suit and also implemented work-from-home regulations.
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic started, 59.3 percent of the respondents have been working from home. 29 percent of those surveyed said they have been in the WFH environment for one to two years, with 11.7 percent in this industry for two years already.
The WFH environment provides an avenue for these individuals to take hold of their time. Meaning to say, they can determine at which parts of the day they can work, unlike working in the traditional office setup.
Day-offs among these work-from-home employees vary according to the companies they are in. There are companies that require them to work daily, while others are more lenient on the schedule. Time tracking is also a consideration.
For 47.2 percent, they have to work every day. 31 percent are saying they are also working during the weekends, with 17.9 percent who spend time for themselves during the weekend, and do not work on these days.
It is interesting to note that the survey respondents admitted they tend to overspend while working from home, as opposed to when they are not in this setup. Around 63,4 percent of the respondents have the habit to overspend in the WFH versus approximately 36,6 percent who are not yielding to overspending.
Their expenses are enumerated as: grocery goods, non-child food products, home entertainment, household supplies, snacks, books and magazines, personal care products, and other minor necessities.
Out of these expenses, grocery items comprise most of their necessities from their job earnings, while the least goes to out-of-home entertainment.
For the Gen Z group (16 to 23 years old), it is at $277.54; for the Millennials (24 to 37 years old), it is at $264.9; for the Gen X (38 to 56 years old), the weekly spend is at $331.36, while it is $223.9 for the Baby Boomers (57 to 64 years old).
From the list, it is the Gen X or those from 38 to 56 years old who are having the most weekly spending, with the least being the Baby Boomers, from 57 to 64 years old.
Many of the respondents said they need financial therapy sessions while in the work from home setup, but this comprises 48.3 percent. Still, most of them, over half of the survey respondents at 51.7 percent, can manage without the financial therapy.
Reports reveal that almost half of the Americans are burdened by credit card debt, citing COVID-19 as one of the factors leading to this situation.
There are a number of individuals from the respondents who are into credit cards when spending for their necessities, their needs, and wants. The money they pay their credit cards for may come from their remote work earnings. Are they able to pay the credit card bills on time? Many are not able to.
For instance, the survey has shown that more than half, at particularly 60.4 percent of the respondents, saying that they experience debt with their credit card bills.
On the other hand, almost 40 percent are saying these debts are managed, or they do not have credit card debts.
Many of the work from home employees also have families to support, adding more to the challenges and the need to have financial therapy talks.
Among those who CouponLawn surveyed, 72.6 percent are supporting their family while there is a 27.4 percent who do not have their own family yet.
To ensure that the above-mentioned data is only from work-from-home employees in the U.S., we launched a survey on MTurk and set the qualifications to only U.S. citizens who are in the WFH environment.
We also included attention-check questions somewhere in the survey to ensure our participants are not just answering the survey questions randomly.
Also, the survey’s results do not, in any form and way, reflect the opinions of our editors and writers.