Socio-economic inequalities in ability to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the nature of work, with physical distancing regulations aimed at preventing infections necessitating work-from-home (WFH) arrangements. Studies indicate that many individuals prefer working from home due to fear of contracting the virus at work. However, not all work can be performed from home. Moreover, jobs that are amenable to be performed from home generally pay more, while the ability to WFH will likely increase income inequality. Therefore, we ascertained socio-economic inequalities in ability to WFH among South African employees during the pandemic. We used data from the National Income Dynamics Study-Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey, a nationally representative longitudinal survey of South Africans conducted during the pandemic. We found that the ability to WFH was pro-rich (i.e. concentrated on workers in higher socio-economic classes) in all study periods. The results were robust to the use of different ranking variables and varying the age cut-off. There was no gender difference in these inequalities. Casual employment, urban residence, being married/cohabiting, age and household size dampened the degree to which ability to WFH favoured those in higher socio-economic classes. Conversely, being non-African, living in a house/flat and having more education increased the pro-richness of the ability to WFH. This study highlights the significant inequalities associated with ability to WFH, a likely important positive determinant of welfare in the pandemic and post-pandemic periods. Interventions targeted at inequality-enhancing factors such as race, housing and education may be important in lowering these inequalities. JEL Codes: D63, J22