Support for a legal right to work from home: Do those who need it, support it? The COVID‐19 pandemic as natural experiment

Germany's work culture, historically shaped by strong male breadwinner and ideal worker norms, has gradually shifted toward more flexible working arrangements. Before the COVID‐19 pandemic, access to working from home was highly restricted. Despite its expansion during the pandemic, significant inequalities in access persist. This study examines the evolution of public support for a legal right to work from home in Germany over the course of the pandemic as a ‘natural homeworking experiment’. Drawing on normative policy feedback theory, we hypothesize that support initially increased among groups with lower bargaining power before diffusing to the broader population. We use longitudinal data from 2705 individuals (8368 person‐years) surveyed four times between January 2020 and January 2022. Findings confirm that public support for such regulation increased over the first 2 years of the pandemic, with temporary stagnation in fall 2021 but stronger growth towards the end of containment measures. At that stage, support also grew among groups initially less supportive of the law. Notably, support was not limited to those working from home and followed clear socio‐economic patterns: women, young individuals, and low earners consistently expressed higher approval. These results underscore the necessity of legislation guaranteeing access to work from home.