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What Does Remote Work Actually Save?

Remote and hybrid work save money on both sides of the table: the employee stops paying for the commute and the daily spend, and the company needs less office space. Here is the combined annual value across your team.

18 people40
13 days5

5 = fully remote

$

Commute, lunch out, coffee, per office day

$

Rent, utilities, facilities. Set 0 if locked in a lease.

Combined annual value

$0

Per employee / year

$0

money back in their pocket

Employee side (team)

$0

daily costs avoided

Company side (team)

$0

office space saved

Office days removed

0

team commutes / year

Hybrid vs Fully Remote

More remote days means more savings, and more deliberate effort to keep the team connected. Here is your current setting against the fully remote maximum.

Your setting

$0

at 3 remote days

Fully remote (5 days)

$0

the maximum

What This Number Means for You

Flexibility is a benefit with a real dollar value.

The employee time saved is on top of this.

This prices money, not the hours of commute handed back, which are often worth even more to people. Add that side with the cost of commute calculator to see the full value of a remote day for one person.

Savings are real. Connection is not automatic.

Remote captures this value only if you invest a fraction of it back into keeping the team connected. Neglect that and you trade facilities cost for disengagement. The virtual team building guide covers the deliberate rituals that make distributed work sustainable.

About the numbers: Assumes 46 working weeks per year. Employee savings = daily cost avoided × remote days × 46, per person. Company savings = office cost per desk × (remote days ÷ 5), per person, reflecting proportional space reduction through desk sharing or downsizing. Combined value = both sides, team-wide. The office saving is only realizable at lease renewal or when avoiding new space; set it to zero to see employee-side savings alone. Excludes remote-enablement costs (tools, gatherings) and the time value of the commute, which the cost of commute calculator prices. Planning estimate.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from the cost of commute calculator?
The cost of commute calculator looks at one person's commute in detail. This one takes the wider view: it adds the employee's daily savings (commute, lunches out, coffee) to the company's savings (office space you no longer need per remote day), across the whole team, to show the total value remote or hybrid work creates on both sides of the table. Use the commute calculator to price one person's drive; use this to make the team-wide case.
Is the office space saving real if we keep the lease?
Not immediately, which is why it is worth being honest about. If you are locked into a lease, the per-desk saving is theoretical until renewal, when you can downsize or move to hot-desking. Where it becomes real fast is for growing teams (you avoid leasing more space as you add people) and at renewal. Set the office cost per desk to zero if you want to see only the employee-side savings, which are real from day one.
What should I put for daily cost avoided?
The out-of-pocket spending a remote day removes: commute (fuel, transit, parking), the lunch bought out, the coffees, sometimes childcare or work clothes. For many people this lands between $15 and $35 a day. It does not include the value of the time saved, which is often larger; the cost of commute calculator prices that separately, and it is worth adding to the picture when you make the case.
Does remote work actually save the company money?
On facilities, yes, and it can be substantial: office space is one of the largest fixed costs after payroll. The honest caveat is that remote has its own costs (tools, occasional gatherings, and the deliberate effort required to keep a distributed team connected) and its own risks if connection is neglected. This calculator prices the facilities saving; treat it as the gross number and net out your remote-enablement spend.
Is more remote always better?
No, and the number here is only one input. Fully remote maximizes the dollar savings but requires the most intentional effort to maintain connection and culture, and it does not suit every role or person. Many teams land on hybrid as the balance: most of the savings, most of the flexibility, and enough in-person time to keep the team a team. The right answer is a judgment call, not just a maximization.
As a manager, why run this?
Because it turns a flexibility conversation into a numbers conversation. When you can show that a hybrid arrangement hands each person real money and time while saving the company real facilities cost, "can we work remote more" stops being a favor to grant and becomes a mutually good deal to design. It is also a genuine, low-cost benefit you can offer when raises are not on the table.

Flexibility Is a Benefit You Can Actually Afford.

Price both sides, reinvest a slice into connection, and turn "can we work remote" from a favor into a good deal for everyone.

Calculator: Cost of Commute → Guide: Virtual Team Building →

Related: Meeting-Free Day Savings →

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