As the day looms when employees can ask for flexible working rights, official figures reveal that the number of people working from home has risen to its highest level since records began.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there were 4.2 million people working from home in the first quarter of this year, making up 13.9 per cent of the workforce.
The figures include people who use home as a base, such as salespeople, who are mainly on the road, as well as people who actually work in their home or in studios or workshops somewhere on their property.
From June 30, any worker who has worked for a firm for at least 26 weeks can ask for a flexible working contract, meaning that they could ask for time to work from home.
However, according to some unions, many employers are suspicious of the ‘working from home’ line and are forcing employees to work in the office, where they can keep an eye on them, with a spokeswoman for the TUC saying that employers’ attitudes to new working practices must change to make better use of the modern technology that allows people to work from different locations.
That said, according to the ONS, over 60 per cent of the people who work from home described themselves as self-employed, compared to the 34 per cent who were employed by a company or organisation. It will be interesting to see whether that percentage changes once the flexible working rules have taken effect.
Of these home workers, just under 15 per cent are managers or senior officials, while 35 per cent are professionally qualified. They are also better paid than many of their peers, with the average hourly rate for someone who works at home being £13.23 an hour, compared with £10.50 an hour received by other workers.