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How much is telecommuting worth to you? People have all sorts of reasons to want to telecommute, money being just one of them. So when you’re job hunting, and you find a job that allows telecommuting, factor the cost and other savings of this benefit into the salary and overall compensation package being offered. It might just sway your decision on how good that offer looks!

Many people rate telecommuting as an important benefit in their jobs. And so they should. Telecommuting saves you the time you’d otherwise spend on the road and the cost of gas for the commute (which is getting more and more expensive) - and those are just the two most tangible benefits. The long list is, well… long.

I realize this is not news to most people. Yet somehow, people forget to factor these items in when making decisions on what job to choose. Let’s take an example. Say you have two job offers. Both look equally as interesting and rewarding and they offer similar salaries. But the one with the slightly lower salary will let you telecommute four days/week. What does that do for your family budget’s bottom line?

First there’s the actual cost savings:

Gas: $40/week. Let’s say you live 30 miles from the job and your car gets 25 miles to the gallon. That’s nearly 10 gallons per week you’re saving – at the current $4/gallon rates.

Clothing: $20/week. Consider the savings on your office wardrobe and dry-cleaning bills. Now that you’re only dressing in corporate garb once/week, how much will you save?

Food: $40/week. Grabbing something from your fridge at home may cost you a couple dollars for lunch, compared to the $10+ the cafeteria charges. And those fancy coffee drinks at $4 or more each don’t compare to the pennies it costs to make a coffee at home. Let’s say you save at least $10 on the days you don’t go in.

That’s $100/week right there. In the average working year you’re looking at close to $5,000.

There are also significant time savings:

Commute: 4 hours/week: You can probably save 1 hour each day just by avoiding the commute.

Increased work effectiveness: 2 hours/week. How much time do you waste at work from gossiping coworkers and idle chit-chat. Believe it or not you probably can save at least 1/2 hour per day just from avoiding that (and that’s a conservative estimate).

Then there are the less tangible benefits:

• Avoiding the high-fat, -sodium and –sugar content of the cafeteria food as well as the candies on your co-worker’s desk is better for both your waistline and your arteries.
• Avoiding the stress that comes with fighting heavy traffic to and from work in rush hour improves your physical and mental health, as well as your relationships with your family members.
• Use the time you’re saving to finally start up that exercise routine you’ve been meaning to do. A regular exercise program will reduce stress, improve relationships, reduce your medical expenses, increase your longevity, and make you look and feel better!
• Working from home gives you the flexibility to fit in an appointment, have the occasional breakfast with your kids or attend their ballet recitals.
• Taking a car off the road 4 out of every 5 workdays does so much more for the environment than putting in a couple fluorescent light-bulbs in your house!
• Avoiding public germ-ridden offices reduces your frequency of colds and other illnesses.

So remember those 2 jobs in the example? Suddenly the telecommuting one increases your relative salary by $5K after taxes (what’s that to you pre-tax?), reduces your workweek by 6 hours, and includes all the other benefits above.

Now which job are you going to choose?

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