Gated Flexibility: Sequential Sorting and Racial Inequality in Access to Remote Work

• In Event: Gender and Race at Work

Abstract

The racial gap in working from home (WFH) is the cumulative product of three sequential sorting processes: the educational gateway that restricts WFH-eligible employment, occupational channeling within the college-educated workforce, and residual within-occupation inequality driven by employer-side constraints. Using American Community Survey (ACS) microdata for 7.8 million employed workers (2017--2019, 2021--2024) and the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes (SWAA) for 327,000 WFH-capable workers (May 2020--January 2026), I identify three main patterns. First, Hispanic workers face the largest cumulative disadvantage, with compounding penalties at all three stages simultaneously. Second, while Black workers face severe WFH exclusion due to structural and occupational barriers, they actually secure a WFH premium within remote-capable roles. Third, the racial gap is distinctly gendered: minority women's disadvantages are primarily concentrated at the occupational channeling stage, while minority men face within-occupation residual penalties consistent with employer-side rather than worker-based constraints. These compounding inequalities extend to wage returns. Black workers capture a WFH wage premium, less than one-third the premium White men earn in the same occupations.

Author

• Minjin Chae, Harvard University