{
  "id": 10766977,
  "title": "U.S. workers spend nearly $7,000 per year just to show up at the office",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/29/u-s-workers-spend-nearly-7-000-per-year-just-to-show-up-at-the-office",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-29T19:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91614983/u-s-workers-spend-nearly-7000-per-year-just-to-show-up-at-the-office"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A recent study by resume-building platform Resume.io reveals that U.S. workers spend an average of $6,736 annually just to show up at their office. Commuting costs account for over 40% of this total, amounting to $2,751 per year. Additional expenses include buying food and coffee, which total $2,598 annually. The survey found that 53.2% of workers reported their office costs have increased over the past year, while only 5.9% said their costs had decreased. The study analyzed data from federal wages, commuting, fuel, and prices across the 36 largest U.S. metropolitan areas and surveyed 1,000 full-time office workers. Surprisingly, despite being among the most expensive cities, New York, Boston, and San Francisco rank among the least costly places to be an office worker when accounting for local salaries. Orlando, Florida, has the highest \"commuting tax\" relative to salary, followed by Riverside, California; San Antonio, Texas; Tampa, Florida; and Nashville, Tennessee. Austin, Texas, has the highest dollar amount, costing commuters $7,424 annually due to its longest average commute. The study found that office workers spend an average of 184 hours a year commuting, equivalent to 23 full workdays, and 43.4 minutes longer getting ready each office day, adding another 137 hours per year. Despite the pandemic, many companies still expect employees to be in the office at least three days a week, with 89% of U.S. companies having this expectation, up from 78% in 2025. Some companies have adjusted their return-to-office (RTO) policies in response to employee pushback, such as Barclays delaying enforcement of its hybrid work policy until 2027.",
  "summary": "American workers spend an average of $6,736 each year just to show up at the office, according to a recent study by resume-building platform Resume.io. Commuting accounts for more than 40% of the costs, or $2,751 a year, including public transit, gas, and other expenses. Another $2,598 a year comes from buying food and coffee. More than half of workers (53.2%) said their office costs have risen…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}