Flexible Hours Survey: Half Would Consider Taking Pay Cut for Flexibility

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Posted Sep 05, 2013
Anne Pilon

As more Americans are looking for jobs, some workers have had to reconsider the types of things that are important to them in a potential workplace. Flexible hours have traditionally been a concern for many workers, but that could be changing. How important are flexible hours to US workers? And what are the other aspects that employees find important when considering a new job?

flexible work schedule

Flexible Hours

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, just 20% of workers said they currently have a very flexible work schedule. 45% said their work schedule is somewhat flexible. 23% said their work schedule is not very flexible. And 12% said their current work schedule is not flexible at all.

Importance

Of those who are either currently employed or looking for work, 40% said they feel that flexible hours are very important when considering a new job. 46% said that flexible hours are somewhat important to them. 12% said they don’t find a flexible work schedule to be very important. And just 2% said that a flexible work schedule isn’t important to them at all.But although many feel that flexible hours are important, they may not be the most important factor. Just 11% said they would definitely take a slightly lower salary in order to get a flexible work schedule. 40% said they would probably consider a slight pay cut to get flexible hours. 38% said they probably wouldn’t. And 11% said they definitely wouldn’t.

Other Factors

In fact, 53% of workers and job seekers rated salary the most important factor when considering a new job. A flexible schedule was next on the list for many respondents. Time off, other benefits, and quality of work were rated in the middle of the pack for most important workplace factors. And overall environment and boss and co-workers were rated among the least important factors for workplace satisfaction. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Day 174: Last Day of Work from FlickrWhat do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on September 4 via AYTM’s online survey panel.