Dive Brief:
- Among the country’s top earners, those who make $250,000 or more have the greatest chance to work remotely, according to a Feb. 5 report by Ladders, a job site sharing positions with salaries of $100,000 or more annually. At the same time, opportunities for remote and hybrid work for those in that pay range are growing.
- Remote jobs represented 12.1% of jobs for those making $250,000 or more during the fourth quarter of 2024, up from 10.44% the previous quarter, and hybrid roles represented 3.29%, a slight increase from 2.93% during the third quarter, the report found.
- “You could say remote work is the new company car. Employees don’t want to drive to work in a fancy car, they don’t want to drive to work at all,” John Mullinix, director of growth marketing at Ladders, said in the news release.
Dive Insight:
The report shows a reversal in the working arrangement makeup for top earners and flies against broader return-to-work trends, including at the federal level.
A May 2024 report by Ladders found that job listings allowing employees earning $250,000 or more to work remotely fell 60% from the previous year, and ones permitting hybrid work fell 95%. Of more than half a million jobs posted over the year analyzed, 4% of $250,000-plus jobs were listed as fully remote, and fewer than 1% were offered as hybrid, the report found.
Mullinix attributed the growth in flexible opportunities for high-earning workers to technological advancements, notably in telehealth.
“Mental health, primary care, and even some nurse practitioner roles have seen significant remote expansion, making high-paying medical jobs more accessible outside traditional clinical settings,” Mullinix said.
Those looking for high-paying remote jobs will see the least competition in healthcare, science and engineering roles and will face a tougher time securing positions in business development, sales and marketing, Ladders found.
Apart from offering flexible work, companies also are still turning to signing bonuses to attract workers, even as wage growth cools, according to a Jan. 28 report by Indeed’s Hiring Lab. While losing popularity, signing bonuses were included in about 3.7% of U.S. job postings on Indeed in December 2024, which is nearly double the pre-pandemic average of 1.9%.
