Regus: The commuting cost challenge

May 27, 2015 - PRLog -- Hong Kong – The cost of travelling to work has almost doubled in the past five years, with new research by global workplace provider Regus revealing that workers worldwide now spend an average of 5% of their net take-home pay on their annual commute to work. The study surveyed more than 44,000 senior business people across more than 100 countries, including 365 respondents from Hong Kong.

Globally, workers spent an average of 3% of their annual take home pay on their commute in work and back in 2010, but recently the situation has worsened significantly. Last year (2014) in some parts of the world, such as South Africa, Brazil, France, India and Mexico, costs have risen even higher than the 5% average.

For a small but unlucky percentage of workers globally, the annual commute eats up far more of their income, with 14% of workers admitting they spend 10% or more of their earnings on travel. A further fifth spends over the average, reporting that 5-10% of their salary goes on commuting. Businesses that want to retain and attract top talent cannot fail to address the issue of such costly commutes.

“With living costs rising, every penny counts for the world’s workers. Yet travel expenses are accounting for a larger and larger slice of their yearly outgoings, in some cases making the commute to work prohibitively expensive and deterring prospective talent,” said Michael Ormiston, Country Manager, Regus Hong Kong.

“Flexible working can provide a solution for maxed out employees. Businesses that want to offer workers a real perk and retain valuable staff need to urgently address ways to reduce the cost of commuting by offering them the choice to work closer to home at least some of the time.”