Should telecommuting employees be paid according to their place of residence?
⇒ The indexing of staff salaries by location.
In the US, Google, Facebook and Twitter have introduced variable pay for teleworkers based on their location. Their salary is indexed to the cost of living according to the territory. Can this practice be applied in France?
In practice, the company may pay two employees in equivalent positions differently. The risk is that the pay policy may be discriminatory. If the company manages to demonstrate that it acts according to objective and non-discriminatory criteria, such as the difference in the cost of living according to the territory - which is an objective criterion - then practicing different salaries according to the employee's place of work will be legally valid. In 2016, the Court of Cassation ruled that an employer's decision to unilaterally apply a difference in treatment with respect to pay was valid. This salary policy resulted from a disparity in the cost of living according to the employees' geographical location: Renault applied different salary scales to workers in the Paris region and in the provinces. The Court of Cassation therefore accepted a derogation from the principle of "equal pay for equal work", based on an objective criterion relating to the cost of living in the territory. It should be noted that the employer cannot modify the employees' remuneration without their agreement, as it constitutes an essential element of the employment contract. It is therefore more appropriate to speak of a salary policy for new employees and not of a salary adjustment.
⇒ Companies grant between 0 and 10 euros/day to teleworkers. How to determine the amount of telework allowances?
Two years after the beginning of the epidemic, the foundations of the employee/employer pact have been transformed. Flexibility, trust, a better work/life balance and freedom to organize working hours: these are the new credos of the majority of post-covid workers. Hybrid work will be the norm with 2 to 3 days of telework in 2025, according to the latest survey conducted by ANDRH and the BCG firm.
Whether it is full, regular or occasional, the use of telework seems to be a must today to boost the attractiveness of companies and their employer brand. If teleworking has many advantages - savings on travel time, lower CO2 emissions, freedom of organization for the employee - it also involves various psychological, social, insurance, managerial or organizational risks.
How can they be avoided? What mechanisms should be put in place to best support the hybridization of work in organizations? How can we make hybridization an opportunity for organizations rather than an obstacle? Discover here our advice and best practices to adopt to meet the challenge of hybrid transition.
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