In the Dallas metro area, it pays to work from home.

Data published recently by the U.S. Census Bureau shows remote workers in the Dallas metro area earn nearly 51 percent more than their commuting counterparts. For remote workers in the Dallas area, median earnings stood at $77,000 in 2023, compared with $51,100 for other workers.

Federal data cited by Visual Capitalist indicates 15.6 percent of the Dallas-Fort Worth's labor pool, or nearly 688,000 people, were remote workers in 2023.

In the Houston metro area, the difference in median earnings between remote workers and non-remote workers is also a stark difference. According to Census Bureau data, remote workers there earned $67,500 in 2023 — 40 percent more than the $48,200 for traditional workers.

Why the wide gap in pay? The Census Bureau says remote workers are more likely to be older, more likely to be white and less likely to live below the poverty line. All of these traits contribute to higher income.

Among home-based workers in the country’s five biggest metros, median earnings for remote workers were highest in the New York and Chicago areas (over $80,000) and lowest in the Houston area (under $70,000), according to the Census Bureau.

The five-metro comparison also reveals that DFW had the fourth highest share (4.8 percent) of all workers, both remote and non-remote, living below the federal poverty level.

In a recent Substack post, urban planner Bill Fulton notes that remote workers in major cities typically earn 50 percent to 80 percent more than other workers do. He declares that “remote workers are far more affluent than everybody else. They are, of course, office workers, not blue-collar or service workers, and they tend to be more highly educated.”

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This story originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.