Although many jobs still allow for remote or hybrid work schedules, more and more managers are requiring their staff to work full-time hours in the office. Among the major companies that have implemented a five-day-a-week in-person attendance policy are Boeing, UPS, and JPMorgan Chase.

“Companies will have to compete more aggressively on pay if they cannot compete on flexibility,” states Julia Pollak, chief economist of California-based ZipRecruiter.

As a result, US salaries for jobs requiring full-time office work are rising. Companies were paying, on average, $82,037 (£64,562) for entirely in-person employment by March 2024, up more than 33% from 2023 ($59,085; £46,499), according to ZipRecruiter statistics obtained by the BBC.

A portion of this is making up for the flexibility that employees have prioritized during the previous several years; the more pressure there is on employees to give up that independence, the more compensation companies must provide.

According to ZipRecruiter statistics, employees in the US who switched from totally remote to fully in-office setups until 2023 received a salary increase of 29.2%, which is almost twice as much as those who made the opposite move.