Every morning, stepping out the front door feels less like beginning the workday and more like opening your wallet and watching the bills fly away. The simple act of showing up to an office now costs the average worker about $55 a day, according to new data from Owl Labs. That’s not for anything extravagant—just the basics: commuting, coffee, lunch, parking. If you’ve got a pet, tack on another $10 for a dog walker.
We’ve entered a strange era where you literally pay to work.
As companies continue insisting on return-to-office mandates, workers are absorbing the financial fallout. The calculus is grim: $15 to get there, $18 for lunch that usually disappoints, $13 for breakfast and caffeine to stay functional, and $9 just to exist in a parking space. Multiply that across a typical workweek, and you’re looking at more than $200 disappearing just because you did what your employer told you to do.
Compare that with remote work, where the daily cost averages just $18. Make a sandwich at home, brew your own coffee, avoid the traffic—and suddenly work doesn’t feel like a luxury hobby you’re subsidizing.
This is why hybrid workers save, on average, $37 each day they stay home. It’s also why 17% of workers quit in the past year over changes to remote flexibility—because returning to the office isn’t just inconvenient; it’s financially irrational.
And yet, many major corporations—from Amazon to Meta to IBM—have doubled down on RTO demands. They do this while wages stagnate and inflation remains stubborn, effectively telling their employees: Yes, you must spend more to earn the same.
It’s not that workers are unwilling to come in. In fact, Owl Labs found that 92% of employees would return to the office happily—if companies offset the cost. The asks are hardly unreasonable: cover commuting, parking, or simply offer free food and coffee. In other words, treat workers like humans instead of resources to be herded.
There’s an old saying: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” But maybe there should be. Because right now workers are paying just to show up—and that’s not a sustainable model for loyalty, morale, or basic fairness in the workplace.