The International Price of Remote Work
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Abstract
We use data from a large web-based job platform to study how the price of remote work is determined in a globalized labor market. In the platform, workers from around the world compete for jobs that can be done remotely. We document that, despite the global nature of the marketplace, the worker’s location accounts for almost a third of the variance in wages. The observed wage differences are strongly correlated to the GDP per-capita in the worker’s location. This correlation is not accounted for by differences in workers’ characteristics, occupations, nor for differences in the employers’ locations. We also document that remote wages in local currency move almost one-for-one with the dollar exchange rate of the worker’s country, and are highly sensitive to changes in the wages of foreign competitors. Finally, we use data on cross-border contracts to document which remote jobs are more frequently offshored.