- Some Americans are secretly working multiple remote jobs, but it's possible many of them are men.
- It's another example of how remote work's impact on women's pay has been a mixed bag.
- While remote work has kept women in the workforce, it can come with worse pay.
Some Americans are making several hundred thousand dollars a year secretly working multiple remote jobs. But a lot of women haven't been able to take advantage of this remote work perk.
Remote work has helped women's progress toward equal pay, but it's had a mixed impact on women's career advancement.
On the one hand, remote work has allowed more women to stay in the workforce when they otherwise might forced out due to childcare demands. On the other hand, evidence suggests that remote jobs often pay less than in-person roles, hinder career advancement, and can lead to burnout — particularly for women who also take on household responsibilities during their working hours.
At the same time, remote work has facilitated the ease of job jugging, but this lifestyle appears to be dominated by men. In part, that's because men account for the majority of tech and IT workers. These roles are more likely to offer the combination of remote work and job flexibility that make overemployment possible, current and former job jugglers told Business Insider.
Over the past year, Business Insider has spoken with more than 10 job jugglers who have used their six-figure earnings to pay off debt, plan for early retirement, and take lavish vacations. But nearly all of them have been men.
Business Insider compiled expert analysis to gain insight into whether overemployment is truly dominated by men, how prevalent it is in the US, the impact remote work has had on women's professional development, and what policies could help women reach equal pay.
Women's relationship with remote work both helps and hurts
Women are working at near-record levels, and the growth of remote work in recent years is among the key reasons.
"The expansion of remote work allowed about one million women in their 30s and 40s to remain in the workforce at an age when prior generations may have stopped working for family and child-care responsibilities," Aaron Terrazas, Glassdoor's chief economist, previously told Business Insider.
Men and women work from home at very similar rates, but there's some evidence that remote work is even more prevalent among women.
For example, research conducted by Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom found that in the first half of 2023, US women between the ages of 20 and 64 worked from home on roughly 29% of paid workdays, compared to 27% of men.
There's even evidence that suggests remote-working women are more likely than men to take on extra jobs.
In an analysis of 2022 and 2023 Current Population Survey data provided to Business Insider by Sarah Small, an assistant economics professor at the University of Utah, Small calculated that, among full or hybrid remote workers, roughly 7.8% of women and 7.2% of men reported working more than one job.
However, Small said she was unable to determine whether these workers had two full-time roles and whether both were remote. It's possible, for instance, that many of these women had a remote job and a part-time, non-remote second gig.
As of February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 386,000 Americans — less than 1% of the US labor force — were working two full-time jobs simultaneously, but it's uncertain what share of these people had two remote jobs.
Fewer women are overemployed because they're underrepresented in tech roles
Nicole, a Washington-based millennial who told Business Insider she's on track to make nearly $100,000 in combined income this year across two remote program manager jobs, said she thinks there are significantly fewer overemployed women than men.
Her top theory to explain this: women are underrepresented in tech jobs.
"I see tech as the main sector for overemployment, which is a field dominated by men," said Nicole, whose identity is known to BI but has been withheld due to her fear of professional repercussions. "I'm female and non-tech and figured that was why I had less success securing job two." She said it took her nearly a year to find a second job, which was a part-time role.
As of the end of 2023, women accounted for 35% of tech employment in the US, according to WomenTech Network, a global organization that strives to increase diversity in the tech industry. While some tech companies have called people back to the office, many have allowed employees to continue working remotely — providing them an opportunity to take on a second or third job if they wanted. As of last fall, roughly a quarter of US households had at least one person working remotely at least one day a week.
"Some more male-heavy fields like tech and finance have very high WFH levels," Stanford's Bloom said.
Nicole said tech roles are one of the few professions that have the combination of remote working arrangements and flexible hours that are often necessary to pursue and sustain overemployment. Many of the job jugglers Business Insider has interviewed have worked in the tech and IT industries.
"It's very easy for people — particularly tech people — to work multiple jobs," Wall Street forecaster Meredith Whitney previously told Business Insider. "And I think that's what they've done."
Differences in gender roles and expectations could also be dissuading some women from job juggling. In 2019, US women performed 78% of unpaid household production like childcare, laundry, and cooking, according to a Labor Department-commissioned report conducted by economists at Bard College.
"Data certainly suggest working mothers have less leisure time than working fathers and that working mothers spend much more time on housework and care work," Utah's Small said.
While widespread remote work would make it possible for more women to stay in the workforce, there are still some hurdles to equality in pay, Small said.
"I think remote work alone isn't enough to help close gender gaps," Small said. "We'd really need more flexible work hours, paid parental leave, and more accessible childcare to see some substantial changes."
Are you working multiple remote jobs at the same time and willing to discuss details about your pay and schedule? If so, reach out to this reporter at [email protected].