Nearly four years on from the first pandemic decree to “work from home”, the practice is now well and truly embedded.
British workers spend an average of 1.5 days a week home-working, the most of any European country.
Yet even as the Covid lockdowns fade into the past, opportunities to avoid the office continue to grow. The proportion of “flexible working” roles advertised on jobs site Adzuna shot up by over a half in 2023, from 15.1pc to 23.5pc.
Some of these roles are highly lucrative. James Neave, head of data science at Adzuna, says it is now far easier to earn a high salary from the comfort of your living room.
“It’s much more common, certainly compared to pre-Covid, simply because a larger proportion of jobs are now flexible.
“High-paid roles tend to be hard to hire for, so it’s a necessity almost for a lot of companies to give this flexibility. Hiring remotely opens up the pool of candidates enormously.”
Here, Telegraph Money picks out the jobs to aim for if you want a six-figure pay package without having to get out of bed.
Gold-plated remote roles
Data from Adzuna shows that many of the highest-paid remote roles are reserved for professionals at the top of their field.
For “fully remote” roles, specialist medical practitioners come out on top with an average salary of £128,541, ahead of dental practitioners along with – perhaps surprisingly – betting shop managers, on £100,000.
Dentistry from home? It sounds unlikely, but Neave says it reflects the rise of virtual health providers offering online consultations.
For “flexible” working roles, specialist medical practitioner was the only occupation for which the average salary topped £100,000, at £109,974, followed by veterinarians at £85,000, rail transport operatives (£84,000) and chief executives and senior officials (£81,549).
But the word “flexible” can be deceiving, Neave says. “When companies offer ‘flexible’ working there are two things it could mean. One is it’s flexible whether you work in the office or work from home, or it can mean working hours.
“There are jobs such as warehouse and logistics roles that can’t be done remotely – you’ve got to be in the warehouse – but a good chunk get advertised as flexible now. That flexibility is around days of the week worked.”
However, the data shows that for the very highest-paid remote jobs, opportunities are becoming scarcer.
The share of fully remote jobs that pay a salary of over £100,000 fell from 19.3pc to 11.1pc in 2023, a drop Neave characterises as “a bit of a return to normality”.
Six-figures from your sofa
But you don’t need to be a highly qualified doctor or dentist, or even gambling exec, to pull in the big bucks in your pyjamas. The following roles all pay as much as £100,000 a year with few or no qualifications or experience needed.
1. Trainee self-employed mortgage adviser
Annual salary: £50,000-£100,000 + bonuses
Experience/qualifications required: none
Advertised as “hybrid remote”, Power Mortgages is advertising for a trainee self-employed mortgage adviser.
The role offers a permanent, full-time, zero-hours contract with a bonus scheme and commission pay. Shifts are eight hours a day.
No experience is required as “full training will be provided”, although you will need to be a recognised mortgage adviser with a Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice (CeMAP) qualification.
2. Protection adviser
Annual salary: £55,000-£100,000
Experience/qualifications required: Experience in customer services and insurance preferred
Taylor Hawkes is advertising for a permanent, full-time “work from home” role as protection adviser, with the potential for a six-figure salary.
The employee will be “responsible for providing expert advice, building strong client relationships, and ensuring that our clients have the coverage they need to protect their assets and loved ones.”
3. Technology recruitment role
Annual salary: £25,000-£100,000
Experience/qualifications required: University degree
An unnamed “leading technology recruitment” firm is hiring for a role with uncapped commission and £45,000 on-target earnings in the first year.
The ideal candidate will be “degree educated and career driven”. The job ad says remote working is also possible “due to the current climate”.
Freelancing pays
Remote work has also been a godsend for footloose freelancers. Hired guns, particularly in the IT space, can “absolutely” pull in big salaries, and secure lucrative working from home contracts, Neave says.
Research by the hybrid hospitality brand The Social Hub found that the tech industry offers the best opportunities for freelance digital nomads in the UK.
Computer hardware engineer ranked top with 21.2pc of roles advertised as remote, followed by web developer (18.9pc), IT data analyst (18.7pc) and systems administrator (17.6pc).
Other well-paid professions that lend themselves to remote working include recruitment.
Recruiters are responsible for the screening, interviewing and hiring of new employees, and may also scout university campuses for future graduates. This requirement to travel lends itself to flexible working arrangements. Salaries for experienced recruiters can reach £98,618, according to Glassdoor.
Quantity surveyors, who manage all of the construction costs relating to building projects, can carry out much of their work remotely, albeit with regular visits to the construction sites. Experienced freelancers can earn up to £80,000 a year.
Beware the taxman
Many of the firms that have embraced the working from home trend most enthusiastically allow their employees to do the job from anywhere.
Clothes marketplace Depop, charity Blood Cancer UK, apprenticeship platform Multiverse and nutritional shakes maker Huel all offer fully remote policies.
The bank Zopa specifies that its employees can work from abroad for up to 120 days a year, while credit provider Klarna gives staff up to 20 days a year working in a foreign country. Fintech firm Revolut offers 60 days working from “anywhere”.
However, footloose digital nomads face tax traps if they go about their globe-hopping in the wrong way.
David Lesperance, an international tax and migration adviser, warns that high-earning remote workers can fall foul of residency rules.
“It really comes down to how much time you’re spending in the new tax jurisdiction,” he says.
Remote workers can accidentally trigger an obligation to pay tax if they work outside Britain for more than 183 days in a 12-month period.
Lesperance adds: “You need to see if, according to HMRC’s rules, the UK still considers you to be a tax resident. This depends on the number of days you spend abroad, and if you spend over the minimum they will start looking at connections – do you have a home abroad, for example.
“For instance, if you spend more than six months of the year working in Portugal, you are classed as a Portuguese tax resident, and HMRC will impose a certain amount of tax, whether the income is made in Porto or Portsmouth.”
It may be that your income while working abroad ends up being taxed twice, by HMRC and the foreign country you work in. If so, you can usually claim a share of it back via Foreign Tax Credit Relief (FTCR), as part of a self-assessment tax return.
