Remote work has reshaped the global job scene, yet salaries have decreased across several sectors despite high hiring rates in 2023.
Data from Deel indicates salary drops in marketing and operations throughout Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, and Latin America.
Tech roles, like software engineers and data analysts, saw minor cuts, although some reported salary increases.
However, in Latin America, marketing salaries sharply plummeted from US$40,059 to US$24,292.
Meanwhile, product development earnings in the region fell from US$41,863 to US$35,266.
In Brazil, consulting wages drastically reduced from US$64,816 to US$30,709.
However, software engineers in Latin America and Brazil experienced stable or increasing salaries, contrasting broader trends.
Deel reported a 35% rise in regional hiring, with Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia at the forefront.
This salary trend shows a misalignment between job growth and pay, possibly due to sector saturation or global competitive adjustments.
JLL’s January 2024 report shows a drop in remote work popularity, with just 10% adoption in Latin America, hinting at a return to traditional work setups.
Mercer’s report shows 41% of employers are revising policies to address cybersecurity and interaction needs, favoring hybrid models.
Currently, 38% of workers support full-time onsite work, favoring a mix of remote flexibility and onsite presence.
Despite this, only 22% of organizations are expanding flexible work options, indicating a gradual realignment of workplace norms post-pandemic.
The Decline of Remote Salaries in Latin America: A Global Perspective
After the pandemic’s surge, Latin America now ranks as the region with the lowest adoption of remote work, only contributing 10% to its workforce model.
This contrasts sharply with Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), where remote work makes up 29%, outpacing on-site work’s 17%, according to a report by the multinational real estate services firm JLL.
Following EMEA, the strongest adopters of remote work are Asia-Pacific (APAC) at 25% and North America at 24%, as per the “Future of Work: Work Schemes in Latin America” report.
In Latin America, on-site work contributes 19%, but the hybrid model dominates at 71%, based on JLL’s data up to the third quarter of 2023.