Person working on a laptop computer.
Significant socioeconomic inequalities exist between remote workers and those who work away from home, according to US Census Bureau data. The findings are notable because the share of the workforce working from home remains more than double what it was before COVID-19 even though it has declined in recent years.
In 2023, nearly 14% of US workers usually worked from home, which was more than twice the 5.7% of workers who did so in 2019, when 9 million people worked from home in the United States. By 2023, more than 22 million people worked from home.
Recommended For You
Starting in 2023, the Census Bureau tables have been updated to include sociodemographic characteristics in addition to traditional worker characteristics that included means of transportation to work. This new data set revealed that the median age of home-based workers in 2023 was 43.5, which is about 2 years older than the median age of the total workforce. In addition, roughly two-thirds of home-based workers were White, compared with about half of workers who carpooled to work, and around 3.6% of home-based workers were below the poverty level, compared with 9.3% of workers who commuted by public transportation.
The data also revealed geographic differences between home-based workers and those who work away from home. In North Carolina, for example, the median earnings of home-based workers was $65,652, about twice that of public transportation commuters who earned $30,664. In Denver, nearly 12% of at-home workers spoke a language other than English at home, compared with 20.5% of workers who commuted to work by driving alone. In New York’s Bronx County, nearly 40% of home-based workers have jobs in management, business, science and arts compared with 27.6% of all workers.
“In five of the most populous metropolitan areas in the United States, home-based workers consistently showed higher median earnings than all workers in 2023,” according to the report. “In line with their generally higher earnings, a smaller share of home-based workers lived below 100% of the poverty level in 2023 than all workers in each metro area included in this analysis.”
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
