{"id":5988,"date":"2019-10-18T10:40:17","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T09:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oddsmonkey.com\/blog\/?p=5988"},"modified":"2020-02-07T10:41:02","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T10:41:02","slug":"full-time-brits-spend-1738-a-year-commuting-is-working-from-home-the-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oddsmonkey.com\/blog\/news-events\/full-time-brits-spend-1738-a-year-commuting-is-working-from-home-the-answer\/","title":{"rendered":"Full-time Brits spend \u00a31,738 a year commuting \u2014 is working from home the answer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

New research[1] by OddsMonkey has found that many British workers are spending around a week of their year commuting to and from their workplace, all while paying \u00a31,738<\/strong> for the privilege.<\/p>\n

Our survey polled 2,000 full-time, part-time, and self-employed people in the UK to discover more about their commuting habits, as well as how they felt about working from home.<\/p>\n

Commuting is time consuming, expensive, and stressful<\/h2>\n

We discovered that the average full-time British worker who doesn\u2019t work from home will spend around 164 hours<\/strong> commuting to and from their workplace annually \u2014 that\u2019s almost one week every year<\/strong>[2].<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, these full-time employees are paying a hefty average commuting cost of \u00a31,738 per year<\/strong> \u2014 that\u2019s \u00a37.46 each working day<\/strong>. With the median UK salary for full-time employees standing at \u00a329,669[3], this cost represents a sizeable 6% chunk<\/strong> of annual pre-tax earnings to the typical Brit.<\/p>\n

If the time and money costs weren\u2019t enough, we also found that one in three <\/strong>full-time employees in the UK found their daily commute to be a stressful experience, showing that getting to work can also be mentally taxing.<\/p>\n

Some sectors have greater commuting disparity<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s even travel time and cost disparity between different industries. We found that the six sectors whose workers paid more than a pricey \u00a310 daily each day were among those travelling the furthest with average commutes of over 45 minutes:<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Sector<\/strong><\/td>\nDaily commute spend<\/strong><\/td>\nCommute time<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Publishing and journalism<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a313.90<\/td>\n48 mins<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Media and internet<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a313.65<\/td>\n58 mins<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Business, consulting, and management<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a312.47<\/td>\n54 mins<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Information research and analysis<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a310.64<\/td>\n49 mins<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Law enforcement and security<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a310.35<\/td>\n47 mins<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Energy and utilities<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a310.10<\/td>\n50 mins<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Working from home is the preferred option (and it\u2019s more productive!)<\/h2>\n

One way for employees to get around the time-consuming and costly commute is to work from home on a more regular basis. This is something that was reflected in our research: we found that almost three quarters of workers would like to have the option to work from home<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And, most people have a positive outlook when it comes to working at home. Only one in four full-time workers and one in three part-time workers would prefer never to work remotely, and this drops to one in ten for those who are self-employed.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, we found that 59% of workers believe that they are more productive<\/strong> when they work at home, with just 13% saying their productivity suffers.<\/p>\n

Our research also identified some key reasons why people like to work from home, ranging from less wardrobe stress to reduced dog care costs. Some of the most popular perks were:<\/p>\n