In the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home (WFH) became of great importance for a large share of employees since it represents the only option to both continue working and minimise the risk of virus exposure. Uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic and future contagion waves even led companies to view WFH as a ‘new normal’ way of working. Based on influence function regression methods, this paper explores the potential consequences in the labour income distribution related to a long-lasting increase in WFH feasibility among Italian employees. Results show that a positive shift in WFH feasibility would be associated with an increase in average labour income, but this potential benefit would not be equally distributed among employees. Specifically, an increase in the opportunity to WFH would favour male, older, high-educated, and high-paid employees. However, this ‘forced innovation’ would benefit more employees living in provinces have been more affected by the novel coronavirus. WFH thus risks exacerbating pre-existing inequalities in the labour market, especially if it will not be adequately regulated. As a consequence, this study suggests that policies aimed at alleviating inequality, like income support measures (in the short run) and human capital interventions (in the long run), should play a more important compensating role in the future.

中文翻译：

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在家工作和收入不平等：COVID-19 出现“新常态”的风险。

在当前 COVID-19 大流行的背景下，在家工作 (WFH) 对大部分员工来说变得非常重要，因为它是继续工作和最大限度地降低病毒暴露风险的唯一选择。大流行持续时间和未来传染浪潮的不确定性甚至导致公司将WFH视为一种“新常态”的工作方式。基于影响函数回归方法，本文探讨了与意大利员工WFH可行性长期增加相关的劳动收入分配的潜在后果。结果表明，WFH 可行性的积极转变与平均劳动收入的增加有关，但这种潜在的好处不会在员工之间平均分配。具体来说，增加 WFH 的机会将有利于男性、老年人、高学历，高薪的员工。然而，这种“强制创新”将使更多的受新型冠状病毒影响的省份的员工受益。因此，WFH 可能会加剧劳动力市场中先前存在的不平等现象，尤其是如果它没有得到充分监管的话。因此，本研究表明，旨在缓解不平等的政策，如收入支持措施（短期）和人力资本干预（长期），应在未来发挥更重要的补偿作用。