It's really not. The costs of commuting and wfh vary dramatically between individuals.

In my case I have no commuting costs, I run or walk to work. Hell it's actually slightly cheaper as I showered at work 5 days a week.

The costs of wfh during winter however are massive as I live in an old northerly city where well insulated flats simply don't exist. Plus my flat is mostly one room, with massive windows and has electric heating. There's no affordable way to insulate it and heating it an extra 8 hours a day will cost £80-100 a month.

Thanks for the numbers. I’ve never lived somewhere cold enough to make it noticeably more expensive to stay at home all day, but now you’ve got me wondering if the cost of WFH would be more noticeable if I had air conditioning. I’m sure the cost is also significant for normal people who don’t consider a desktop computer and fast home internet a basic utility.

They do actually. Maybe not where you live, but where I live it's normal (and expected) that employers compensate for commute.

Interesting, I haven’t heard of this. Is it like a fixed allowance or based on the employee’s actual costs? How does it work for cyclists and others with cheap commutes? Here in Australia we have various special allowances for some jobs, and it is normal for the employer to fund work-related travel during the day, but it’s not normal for employers to pay for the cost of commuting to a regular office job.

Where I live, companies often provide a loan for a train season ticket (about £6k/year), but you're still expected to pay for it yourself in the end.

Separately, the tax office does not allow employees or contractors to treat commutes as a tax-deductible expense. The cost of going to a non-habitual workplace is expensable, but not a regular commute.