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ALMOST 3 QUARTERS OF U.S. HOUSEHOLDS OWN A PET
Surveys show that approximately 94 million U.S. households own a pet, which is about 71% of all households, according to the 2024-2025 American Pet Products Association (APPA). This number has been gradually rising, with dog ownership at around 68 million households, followed by cat ownership at 49 million households.
According to the Pew Research Center, 50% of U.S. pet owners say their pets are as much a part of their family as a human member.
RTO MANDATES AND PET OWNERSHIP
According to a recent Inc. article, written by Bruce Crumley, nearly half of employees with pets said they would take a pay cut to continue working alongside their animal companions. Additionally, fully 78 % of surveyed pet owners said they’d reconsider their office job if dogs were banned from company premises.
While exact numbers vary by survey and year, the percentage of companies allowing dogs in the workplace is a minority, with recent figures ranging from about 7% to 11%. However, this number is increasing, driven by factors like the desire for work-life balance and as a recruiting incentive, and many prominent companies like Amazon and Google already have pet-friendly policies.
Prevalence:
· While a majority of companies do not have a pet-friendly policy, the number is growing.
· Older surveys from 2016 reported that around 7% of employers allowed pets.
· More recent figures show the percentage has grown, with some surveys citing around 11%.
· Other estimates range as high as 20% for companies with year-round policies, though this figure may include coworking spaces.
Growing trend:
· The practice is on the rise due to the benefits of reduced stress and increased employee satisfaction, making it a competitive perk for attracting talent.
Additional data from the APPA revealed that, “67 percent of employees who live with a dog, cat, parrot, guinea pig — or the potbellied variety — and other domestic critters said they’d find a new job if their employer decided to reduce or terminate their remote working arrangements.”
PETS AND PRODUCTIVITY
The report also cited research showing that pet-owning workers outperform colleagues without animal roommates across many performance metrics.
Mr. Crumley writes, “Take, for example, the 91 percent engagement rates of pet owners compared to 65 percent for critter-less colleagues. The same gap exists for productivity rates of 88 percent versus 65 percent, and intent to remain with employers — so long as remote working options allow them to stay with Fido and Sheeba — of 88 percent versus 73 percent.
Similar differences in favor of the animal cohabitation crowd were found in work-life balance, commitment to the company’s mission, and workplace stress reduction.
Pet-owning workers offer employers other advantages. Those include better structuring of their workday, heightened focus on work, and more clearly defined times and durations for their breaks.”
An Employee Borderless report states, “What happened between 2020 and 2025 wasn’t just people getting pets. It was millions of workers discovering they could structure their days around both work and pet care, leading to unprecedented productivity gains. They learned to take walking meetings, use pet breaks for mental resets, and leverage the calming presence of animals during stressful projects.”
That latter effect also reduces employer costs for pet-owning workers’ mental health care.
More than 90 percent of surveyed employees with fur babies said they have lower levels of stress when their animals are around. That benefit is higher within remote working situations.
Mr. Crumley’s article concludes: “Companies issuing return-to-office mandates will face resistance from pet owners, with the majority saying they would rather change jobs than give up remote work. This is leaving them at risk of losing their happiest and most productive workers.”
HOW CAN ASN HELP?
As the above article shows, our professionals at ASN monitor key workplace trends that could impact our clients. If you would like to discuss how you could create a pet-friendly work environment, we would love to talk with you. Just give us a call.
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