The cost of travelling to work has almost doubled over 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 income on their annual commute. The study surveyed more than 44,000 senior business people across more than 100 countries.
Global workers spent an average of 3% of their annual take-home pay on their commute into work back in 2010, but the situation has now significantly worsened. Costs have risen even higher than the 5% average for workers in some parts of the world. In South Africa, Brazil, France, India and Mexico, for example, country averages have reached 6%.
For an unlucky but small 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. Another fifth spends over the average reporting that 5-10% of salary goes on commuting. Businesses that want to retain and attract top talent cannot fail to address the issue of the costly commute.
In 2010 the average commuter spent 3% of take-home salary on travel, this has now risen to 5%. In France, Mexico, South Africa and India commuters spend an average of 6% of annual income on travel and more than a third (34%) of respondents spend over the average 5%.
Harsh Lambah, country manager of Regus, Bangladesh commented, “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 into work prohibitively expensive and deterring prospective talent.” “Flexible working can provide a solution for maxed out employees. Businesses that want to provide workers with a real perk and retain valuable staff need to urgently address reducing the cost of commuting by offering them the choice to work closer to home at least some of the time.”
Regus is the global workplace provider. Its network of more than 2,300 business centres in 104 countries provides convenient, high-quality, fully serviced spaces for people to work, whether for a few minutes or a few years. Companies like Google, Toshiba and GlaxoSmithKline choose Regus so that they can work flexibly and make their businesses more successful.
The key to flexible working is convenience and so Regus is opening wherever its 2.1 million members want support - city centres, suburban districts, shopping centres and retail outlets, railway stations, motorway service stations and even community centres.
Founded in Brussels, Belgium, in 1989, Regus is based in Luxembourg and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Their business centres in Dhaka are located at Crystal Palace, 3rd Floor, House SE (D) 22, Road 140, Gulshan South Avenue, Gulshan-1 and UTC Building, 19th Floor, Kawran bazar, Dhaka, 1215.
For more information, please visit: www.regus.com.bd or contact: [email protected]
