The COVID-19 pandemic revolutionized the way we work. But a recent report claims working from home depends on where you live and what you do — and the effects could worsen Wisconsin’s digital divide.
Remote work in Wisconsin skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic began. But according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum, remote work options are not equally distributed across the state, which could worsen existing digital divides.
Released in February 2023, the Wisconsin Policy Forum report, titled “The Uneven Rise of Remote Work,” found job type and infrastructure played a role in creating a remote work divide within the state by analyzing remote work data from 2021.
Among the 100 largest metropolitan areas nationally, Madison ranked 22nd in share of workers who primarily worked from home in 2021, according to the report. Similarly, Dane County residents were the most likely to work remotely in the state, with nearly a quarter reporting they work from home.
However, residents in neighboring Rock and Dodge counties — both less populous than Dane County — had less than 10% of residents working from home, according to the report.
Joe Peterangelo, a senior researcher for Wisconsin Policy Forum, authored the 2023 report and found working from home is more common in some Wisconsin countries than others, primarily due to uneven concentrations of “remote-capable” occupations.
Put simply, differences in local economies impact who can work remotely, Peterangleo said.
“The counties that we found that had the smallest concentrations of remote work, they tend to be more manufacturing focused,” he explained.
Hands-on jobs are more common than professional positions in Wisconsin’s rural counties, Peterangelo said. In Dodge County, only 11.3% of jobs were in highly remote-capable sectors. approximately 30% of total jobs in Dodge County are within the manufacturing sector, the county’s leading sector, according to state data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.
Additionally, a National Bureau of Economic Research study estimated at least two-thirds of jobs in each of five major sectors — finance and insurance, educational services, information, corporate management and professional, scientific and technical services — can be done fully or partially from home, whereas less than one quarter of jobs in other sectors like agriculture and manufacturing can be done remotely.
“The occupations that tend to offer more remote and hybrid opportunities already tend to have more advantages, higher pay, better benefits,” Peterangelo said.
He warned those benefits, if left concentrated in urban counties and among wealthier residents, could worsen preexisting inequities among Wisconsin workers.
“This could be another benefit for workers who tend to already have more advantages,” Peterangelo said. “There's also a racial equity issue, too, because occupations that tend to not allow remote and hybrid are more likely to have higher concentrations of Black and Hispanic workers.”
Broadband in Wisconsin
Among jobs with remote work potential, rural areas still lag behind, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum report. Remote work typically means video meetings, VPN usage and other tasks requiring broadband internet connection that rural areas lack.
Approximately 22% of rural Wisconsinites — more than three times the state average — don’t have the infrastructure needed for an internet connection fast or reliable enough to meet federal broadband standards, according to the Federal Communications Commission’s 2021 Broadband Deployment Report. To meet broadband requirements, the FCC requires download speeds of 25 megabits per second and upload speeds of three megabits per second.
This is all assuming the FCC’s maps are accurate — something multiple states have challenged, according to the Cap Times. In Wisconsin, the Public Service Commission (PSC) challenged more than 7,000 locations in October of last year where they believed accurate numbers on broadband access were missing or incorrect.
In February 2023, Gov. Tony Evers proposed a budget calling for the state to invest $750 million in broadband expansion over the next decade. Broadband maps released last year by the FCC identify underserved areas that would qualify for federal funding made available through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program established by the bipartisan infrastructure law.
"Whether it’s going to school, working from home, or running a small business, broadband is essential to ensuring our families, communities, and our state bounce back from this pandemic even better than we were before it hit," Evers said in a statement last November.
Benefits and disadvantages to remote work
Wisconsin’s rural residents are missing out on potential benefits that come with working from home in “remote-capable” sectors, which multiple workers claim includes a more flexible work schedule and lack of a daily commute.
Sarah Heywood, a UW-Madison sophomore, works remotely for Aspirus Wausau Hospital registering patients over the phone for their appointments in Wausau.
“I really enjoy working remotely because it gives me a chance to stay involved and connected to my job at Aspirus while I am away at college,” Heywood said.
From her dorm room in Madison, Heywood is able to update patient information and assist patients with their questions and concerns over the phone before logging any changes in that information into Epic.
“This makes the hospital visits go a lot smoother and saves a lot of time,” Heywood said. “I am able to strengthen my communication and computer skills as well as multi-task by talking and typing in patient information in the computer system at the same time in an efficient way.”
As an accountant for University Housing at UW-Madison, Cheryl S., who asked to stay anonymous, is also able to work remotely from home full-time. Though working from home was an initial adjustment as the university moved its operations online at the start of the pandemic, Cheryl S. said the flexibility and casual environment that came with remote work were well received by employees, some of whom remained remote permanently.
“I absolutely love working remotely,” Cheryl S. said. “Not having to commute to campus daily is the best. This gives me back over 90 minutes to my day and also saves me over 1,300 dollars in annual parking fees. I do miss being around the students on campus and their energy.”
Reducing or eliminating commute times is a factor most valued by many remote employees. Not having to commute, and having the flexibility to balance work and life, are top-cited reasons for why many prefer remote work, a 2021 Gallup poll found.
“[Remote work] offers more flexibility to people to build their own schedules in some cases, or at least have some flexibility to change things based on other things going on in their household,” Peterangelo said. “I have co-workers who arranged their schedules a little bit based on their age, child care needs or other responsibilities they have.”
Peterangelo also noted Wisconsin women were 3.4% more likely than men to work from home in 2021, a finding he said was linked to uneven gender distribution across remote-capable occupations.
“Certain occupations that are more male dominated, like manufacturing and construction, are ones that workers have to be onsite for,” Peterangelo said. “Women are getting more opportunities now to have flexibility or hybrid arrangements, and that can really help with their kind of longer-term pay and income.”
Though there are plenty of benefits to remote work, one disadvantage at an individual level is decreasing collaboration in the virtual workplace. The shift to remote work also affected sectors like transportation and service industries that rely on foot traffic from workers in more “remote-capable” sectors for their revenue, Peterangelo said.
“There are fewer people commuting into downtown and into job centers — that affects the businesses there that rely on workers,” Peterangelo said. “Workers are going in every day to work in the restaurants and coffee shops, but the people who would be their customers might not be around as often and frequenting their establishments.”
While remote work has bridged the gender gap and allowed more women an opportunity to maintain a career while starting a family, Peterangelo acknowledged that there’s more progress to make in terms of racial equity in accessing remote work.
“Some of this stuff is changing generationally, there's more equity, as time goes on between spouses so there’s a positive side [to remote work] with gender equity,” Peterangelo said. “But in terms of other forms of equity, there’s still some room to grow.”