Get a raise or work from home? Survey reveals unique results for workers in Malta

An overwhelming majority of survey respondents in Malta, 73 per cent, aged between 18 and 75 would choose a pay raise over the opportunity to work from home.

The results come from a recent survey by job recruitment platform Keepmeposted on salary raises and reveal that workers in Malta differ from European and US counterparts.

Indeed, a 2021 survey by anonymous professional network Blind asked more than 3,000 employees on the platform if they would rather permanently work from home or get an extra $30,000 annually, and a staggering 64 per cent chose to work from home over the raise.

Another poll taken by US firm McKinsey & Company found that Americans also prefer to work from home, with Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom in January of this year said that a hybrid set up is equivalent to a 10 per cent pay raise.

Speculating as to why workers in Malta overwhelmingly prefer the pay raise to working from home, Keepmeposted muses:

“It could be that salary growth in Malta is not keeping up with high cost-of-living increases, so perhaps people prefer higher salaries than the perk of working from home.”

While the entire Western world is undergoing serious cost-of-living increases, staff shortages across the economy are forcing employers to provide more attractive remuneration.

Keepmeposted went on to speculate that local preferences could indicate that those who want to work from home are already finding the opportunity to do so, as employers become more accustomed to this post-COVID reality.

While some may argue that locals do not have the commute times as European or American counterparts, heavy traffic in the autumn and winter months often translate to commute times that one would expect in bigger cities.

“Plus, there are many jobs that do not permit working from home, in which case a raise is definitely a better prospect for people. That includes people in the medical field, catering, architects, construction site workers, retail workers and many others. In that case, this sector of people would naturally prefer the pay raise, given the option,” Keepmeposted said.

Of note, the survey found that a younger cohort of respondents within the ages of 18-30 showed a marginally higher interest in working from home, which could be indicative of the type of jobs the younger generation may be more inclined to have, such as software or digital marketing .

These are jobs that can easily be done from home.

The recruitment platform also found a 6.5 percentage point difference between male and female respondents.

“Female respondents preferred the pay raise slightly more (76.3 per cent) than male respondents (69.8 per cent). There was little to no difference across career levels.”