Commuting time may not be officially factored into working hours but companies already pay for it in domains like tech where they must compete against each other for employees.

Given the number of companies that offer fully remote or hybrid work, a comparable company that wants their employees in the office five days a week has to provide higher compensation and/or lower standards to meet their staffing needs.

The important question for companies is not whether they want to be in-person/hybrid/remote in abstract, the question is how much they're willing to pay.