A little over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, progress in mass vaccination across the country has raised new hopes of a return to some semblance of normalcy, including in the workplace. While many employers and employees crave a return to the pre-pandemic “normal,” COVID-19 has ushered in changes that will have a long-lasting impact on the modern-day workplace. The pandemic saw large numbers of employers and employees transition to working from home virtually overnight. These same employers now are weighing whether to permit or encourage remote work going forward. Yet the many federal, state and local wage-and-hour laws were enacted in a pre-COVID world where the complexities created by remote work of course were not envisioned or addressed.

According to a PwC US Remote Work Survey, the “shift to remote work” has been mostly positive for companies, with 83% of surveyed employers agreeing that remote work has been successful for their organizations. The same survey also showed that over half of the employees (55%) surveyed said they would like to remain remote at least three days a week. Most of the executives surveyed (68%) believe that employees should be in the office at least three days a week once the pandemic is over to maintain a distinctive company culture.