The COVID-19 pandemic caused a massive migration of workers from their offices to their homes. Starting in March 2020, companies closed offices because of the virus. Some have never reopened.

Companies faced several options as COVID-19 infections fell. They could allow people to work from home permanently. They could tell their workers they had to split their time between home and office, or they tell people to return to their offices full time. JPMorgan was among the companies that said they expected people to work in the office. However, the virus has surged again in the past two months and most of the companies backed off their plans. Now, it is unclear how long it will be until they force workers back to offices.

At the far end of the spectrum, some large companies have told workers they will never have to return to their offices. One of these is Twitter. In May 2020, the policy announcement read: “So if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen.”

One benefit from the “work at home” economy is that people have saved money by not commuting. This also has had an effect on the environment, as fewer people drive to work. The recent How Much Employees Saved Working From Home in 2021 report from software testing company Today Testing included the effects of working from home in America’s 100 largest cities. On average, people working from home save $2,398 because they did not have to travel. These people also “avoided putting out 3,428.14 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) in tailpipe emissions.”

The basic assumption to derive the conclusions of the study was that the average number of days Americans work was 242.8, less 17.2 days for vacation. Data were collected from the Census Bureau and the AAA.

The city with the largest savings was Atlanta at $3,987 per year. These are the top 20 cities based on travel savings by working from home:

• Atlanta, Ga. ($3,987)
• Dallas, Texas ($3,800)
• Houston, Texas ($3,800)
• Phoenix, Ariz. ($3,551)
• Nashville, Tenn. ($3,426)
• Detroit, Mich. ($3,239)
• Birmingham, Ala. ($3,146)
• Chicago, Ill. ($3,115)
• Louis, Mo. ($3,115)
• Charlotte, N.C. ($3,021)
• Minneapolis, Minn. ($2,959)
• Indianapolis, Ind. ($2,865)
• Jacksonville, Fla. ($2,834)
• Knoxville, Tenn. ($2,834)
• Orlando, Fla. ($2,834)
• Riverside, Calif. ($2,834)
• Washington, D.C. ($2,834)
• Columbia, S.C. ($2,803)
• Seattle, Wash. ($2,803)
• Kansas City, Mo. ($2,772)

Click here to see which U.S. cities have the best and worst commutes.

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