Unequal Gains from Remote Work during COVID-19 : Evidence from Longitudinal Data in Singapore

This paper examines income trajectories of workers who had shifted to telecommuting during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to those who had continued to work at least partially outside the home. Using a novel dataset of longitudinal data from 362 married couples collected over four survey rounds, fielded before, during, and after the pandemic lockdown in Singapore, we examine immediate and longer-term income differences by remote work status, and the roles of gendered differences in time use and presence of potential helpers. Our results point to a significant income advantage among remote workers during and after the lockdown period among men, but not among women. Further analysis shows that remote workers reported significantly higher improvements in income than their non-remote counterparts only if they spent below-median amounts of time on household chores or childcare. Women were much less likely to do so, suggesting that the unequal division of household labor leads to a smaller advantage enjoyed by female remote workers relative to their male counterparts. There is little evidence that availability of helpers enhances female workers’ ability to benefit from remote work arrangements. Hence, options to work from home may be less advantageous to women than hoped for