Gender and Racial Disparities in the Earnings Effects of Remote Work Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Brazil

Abstract We investigate differences in the earnings penalty of working from home (WFH) by gender and race, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. We used a large, nationally representative longitudinal dataset with quarterly information from 2018 to 2022. Our fixed-effects estimates showed that while WFH was generally associated with an earnings penalty before the pandemic, such a penalty diminished for men, especially Black and Brown men, but remained high for both White women and Black and Brown women during the pandemic. To better understand the channels explaining these gaps, we showed how White women became more likely to work remotely (the supply and demand channel) but less likely to be promoted to managerial positions when WFH (the promotion channel). In contrast, Black and Brown women experienced larger reductions in effective working hours while WFH (the labor input channel).