Deciding what office equipment you should give to your remote workers is really two decisions: what the person needs to do the job well, and who pays for it. Most companies answer the first one reasonably and the second one badly.
The numbers show the gap. A full home office setup costs somewhere between $1,500 and $3,500 depending on the role, but SHRM’s 2026 benefits data puts the average employer-provided equipment allowance at around $901. Just over half of employers offer any equipment subsidy at all, and only about a quarter of remote workers say their setup is fully funded by their employer. The rest is absorbed by the employee, quietly, and it shows up later as attrition rather than as a line on a budget.
This guide covers what to provide, what it costs, how much to budget for a stipend, and the part that catches out anyone hiring across borders: how to actually get equipment into another country and who owns it once it is there.
Key Takeaways
- Budget $1,500 to $3,500 for a full home office setup, against an employer average of roughly $901. The difference is usually paid by the employee.
- About 53% to 62% of employers offer some equipment subsidy, and the median amount scales with company size, from around $300 at companies under 50 people to around $900 at companies over 5,000.
- A common 2026 structure is $1,000 to $1,500 as a one-time setup allowance plus $75 to $150 per month for internet and consumables.
- Split your list into three tiers: essentials everyone gets, role-dependent items, and optional extras. Do not give everyone the same box.
- Software, cloud storage and project tools are not equipment. Budget and procure them separately, or the hardware budget quietly disappears.
- For international hires, shipping company-owned hardware across borders triggers customs duties, import restrictions, warranty gaps and asset-recovery problems. Local procurement is usually cheaper and faster.
The Office Equipment You Should Give to Your Remote Workers: The Checklist
Not every remote worker needs every item. Split the list into three tiers and apply the second tier by role.
| Tier | Item | Who gets it |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Laptop or desktop | Everyone |
| Essential | External monitor | Everyone |
| Essential | Keyboard and mouse | Everyone |
| Essential | Noise-cancelling headset | Everyone |
| Essential | Ergonomic chair | Everyone |
| Essential | Desk or desk allowance | Everyone |
| Essential | Reliable internet, or a stipend toward it | Everyone |
| Role-dependent | Second monitor | Developers, designers, analysts, support agents |
| Role-dependent | External webcam | Client-facing and presenting roles |
| Role-dependent | Higher-spec machine | Engineering, video, design, data |
| Role-dependent | Power backup or UPS | Anyone in a market with unreliable power |
| Role-dependent | Printer and scanner | Roles handling physical documents |
| Role-dependent | Graphics tablet, color-calibrated display | Design and creative |
| Optional | Laptop stand and docking station | On request |
| Optional | Desk lamp, footrest, monitor arm | On request |
| Optional | External storage drive | Where cloud backup is insufficient |
| Optional | Coworking allowance | Where home working is impractical |
The rule of thumb: everything in the essential tier should arrive before day one. Role-dependent items should be agreed during onboarding. Optional items work best as a budget the employee draws on rather than a list you guess at.
The Essential Equipment, Item by Item
Laptop or Desktop Computer
The primary decision is not laptop versus desktop, it is specification against role. A laptop gives flexibility and is the right default for most people. A desktop gives more performance per dollar and suits roles that are genuinely stationary and compute-heavy.
Practical guidance:
- Set two or three standard specifications rather than buying ad hoc. A general business machine, a higher-spec engineering or creative machine, and possibly a light machine for support roles.
- Plan a refresh cycle of three to four years and budget for it from the start.
- Include a repair or replacement allowance. A machine that dies in month eight in another country is a bigger problem than a machine that dies in your own office.
External Monitor
A single external monitor is the cheapest productivity upgrade available and belongs in the essential tier, not the optional one. A second monitor is genuinely role-dependent: developers, designers, analysts and support agents working across multiple applications benefit materially, while most other roles do not.
Keyboard and Mouse
Working from a laptop keyboard and trackpad for eight hours a day is an ergonomic problem, not a preference. Provide an external keyboard and mouse as standard.
Keyboard preference varies more than most equipment, so where possible offer a choice from two or three options rather than shipping one model to everyone.
Noise-Cancelling Headset
A quality audio device is one of the highest-impact items on this list, because it affects every meeting the person attends. Noise-cancelling headsets reduce background distraction, which matters considerably for people working from shared or noisy homes.
Check compatibility with the video platforms you actually use, and prioritize microphone quality over audio quality. Other people hear the microphone.
Ergonomic Chair and Desk
Comfortable seating is not a luxury item. Extended sitting in an unsuitable chair creates musculoskeletal problems, which become absence, reduced output, and in some jurisdictions an employer liability.
Practical guidance:
- A chair is the item most worth spending on and the item most often cut. Set a realistic allowance rather than a token one.
- Desks are often better handled as an allowance than a shipment, since they are bulky, expensive to ship, and easy to source locally.
- Consider an ergonomic assessment or a simple self-assessment checklist during onboarding, which costs almost nothing and catches the worst setups.
Reliable Internet
A stable connection is the foundation everything else sits on. Rather than specifying a provider, which you cannot control in another country, set a minimum speed requirement and subsidize the cost of meeting it.
A monthly internet stipend is one of the two most requested remote work benefits, alongside the home office setup budget itself. It is also inexpensive relative to its effect on daily working life.
Webcam
Most laptops now have adequate built-in cameras, so an external webcam has moved from essential to role-dependent. Provide one for client-facing roles, people who present regularly, and anyone using a desktop machine.
Power Backup
This item is easy to overlook from a head office in a market with stable electricity. In parts of Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa, power interruptions are a normal part of the working week.
A small uninterruptible power supply or a laptop power bank costs very little and converts an outage from lost hours into a minor interruption. Where you have people in affected markets, this belongs in the essential tier for them.
Printer, Scanner and External Storage
Both are now genuinely role-dependent rather than default. Most document workflows are digital, and most backup should run to cloud storage rather than a drive in someone’s home.
Provide a printer and scanner where the role handles physical documents or wet-signature contracts. Provide external storage where cloud backup is insufficient for the data volumes involved, and set clear guidance on what may be stored locally.
Software and Services: Budget These Separately
These are not equipment, and treating them as a separate line prevents software renewals from eating the hardware budget.
- Software licenses. Provide the full licensed versions of whatever the role requires, and keep them current. Version mismatches between team members create real friction.
- Cloud storage and file sharing. Provision company accounts rather than relying on personal ones, and pair the rollout with guidance on what may be stored where.
- Collaboration and project management tools. A shared source of truth matters more for distributed teams than co-located ones. Our guide to remote team collaboration tools covers the categories worth standardizing.
- VPN and endpoint security. Covered in the security section below.
- Onboarding and technical support. Someone in another time zone with a broken laptop and no local IT contact loses a day. Define the support channel and the response expectation before anyone starts.
On time-tracking: the live version of this article lists time-tracking software among equipment to provide, framed around accountability. Where local law or client billing requires time records, provide the tool and explain why. Where it does not, monitoring software tends to cost more in trust than it returns in visibility, particularly with new international hires who have no other read on how you operate. Our guide to building trust in remote teams covers the alternatives.
What Does It Cost to Equip a Remote Worker?
Typical 2026 market prices for business-grade equipment. Treat these as planning ranges rather than quotes, since prices vary considerably by market.
| Item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Business laptop | $800 to $2,000 |
| External monitor (24 to 27 inch) | $150 to $400 |
| Keyboard and mouse | $50 to $200 |
| Noise-cancelling headset | $80 to $350 |
| Ergonomic chair | $200 to $900 |
| Desk | $200 to $700 |
| External webcam | $60 to $200 |
| Laptop stand or dock | $30 to $150 |
| Power backup or UPS | $60 to $200 |
| Printer and scanner | $150 to $400 |
| External storage drive | $60 to $200 |
| Essential tier total | roughly $1,500 to $3,500 |
That total matches the independent benchmark. Owl Labs research puts a full home office setup at $1,500 to $3,500 depending on role and equipment tier, which is a useful sanity check on any internal estimate that comes in far below it.
Ongoing costs are the part people forget. Fully loaded, an end-user computing device costs roughly $1,200 to $2,500 per employee per year once you include the device amortized across its refresh cycle, repairs, and standard accessories. Fully remote companies spend around $17,100 per employee annually on IT and equipment overall, against roughly $6,400 for fully in-office companies, with most of that gap sitting in software, security and support rather than hardware.
Buy, Stipend, or Reimburse?
There are three models, and the right one depends less on budget than on how distributed your team is.
| Model | How it works | Best for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company buys and ships | You procure centrally and send equipment to the employee | Teams in one or two countries, security-sensitive roles | Customs, delivery delays, asset recovery at offboarding |
| Stipend | You give a fixed allowance the employee spends | Distributed teams across many countries | Tax treatment varies, and the employee owns the asset |
| Reimbursement | The employee buys and claims back against receipts | Teams wanting control over spend without shipping | Admin overhead, cash flow burden on the employee |
| Hybrid | Company provides the laptop, stipend covers everything else | Most international teams | Needs a clear split of which items fall where |
The hybrid model is what most international teams converge on, and for good reason. The laptop is the security-critical, high-value item worth owning and controlling centrally. Chairs, desks, monitors and accessories are bulky, cheap to source locally, and painful to ship across a border.
One important caveat: whether a stipend is treated as a taxable benefit or a non-taxable business expense depends on the country and on how the policy is written. Get this confirmed per market before you launch the program rather than after.
How Much Should Your Stipend Be?
Benchmarks vary by company size, which is a more useful guide than a single global average.
| Company size | Share offering a stipend | Median annual amount |
|---|---|---|
| Under 50 employees | About 31% | About $300 |
| 50 to 499 employees | About 49% | About $500 |
| 500 to 4,999 employees | About 61% | About $650 |
| 5,000 or more employees | About 72% | About $900 |
Across all sizes, SHRM puts the employer average at roughly $891 to $901 per year. Analysis of stipend data from more than 800 US companies found an average paid of around $507 per year, which covers less than a quarter of a full setup.
A structure that works in 2026:
- One-time setup allowance of $1,000 to $1,500 at onboarding, covering desk, chair, monitor and accessories
- Recurring $75 to $150 per month toward internet, phone and consumables
- Company-provided laptop outside the stipend, on a three to four year refresh cycle
If that sits above your current budget, the honest framing is that the shortfall is currently being paid by your employees. Remote workers spend an average of roughly $1,200 to $3,500 a year on home office expenses, and only around 38% receive any reimbursement.
For how equipment allowances fit into the wider package, see our guide to employee compensation strategy.
Equipping Remote Workers in Other Countries
Everything above gets harder the moment the person is in another country. Five issues come up consistently.
Customs, Duties and Import Restrictions
Shipping a company laptop across a border is an import. Depending on the destination, that can mean duties and taxes calculated on the declared value, a customs broker, delays of days or weeks, and in some markets restrictions on importing used or second-hand equipment.
The practical effect is that a $1,200 laptop can land considerably more expensive and several weeks later than planned. For a new hire’s first day, that is a bad start.
Warranty and Support Coverage
A machine bought in one country frequently carries a warranty that is not honored in another. Before shipping, check whether the manufacturer offers international warranty coverage for that model, and what the local repair options actually are. Without this, a hardware failure means shipping the device back rather than a local repair.
Who Owns the Asset
If the company buys the equipment, the company owns it, and you need a way to get it back. Recovering a laptop from a former employee in another country, with no local entity and no local contact, is genuinely difficult. Build the return process into the employment agreement at the start, along with a stated value and a process for what happens if the item is not returned.
If the employee buys it with a stipend, they own it. That removes the recovery problem entirely and is one of the underrated arguments for the stipend model internationally.
Tax Treatment
Whether equipment provided or reimbursed counts as a taxable benefit to the employee varies by country. So does whether the company can deduct it. This is not a detail to resolve after the fact, because correcting it means amending payroll filings. Our guide to global payroll compliance covers the wider picture, and how to pay international employees covers the mechanics.
Contractors Versus Employees
Providing equipment to an independent contractor is one of the factors authorities look at when assessing whether someone is really a contractor at all. Supplying the tools points toward employment. It is one factor among several rather than decisive on its own, but it is worth knowing before you ship a laptop to someone you have engaged as a contractor. Our comparison of hiring independent contractors vs employees sets out where the line sits.
The Practical Answer
For most companies hiring internationally, local procurement beats international shipping. Buying the equipment in the country where the person lives avoids customs entirely, keeps the warranty valid, supports local repair, and usually costs less once shipping and duties are counted.
Doing that yourself in a country where you have no entity is awkward, which is why it is commonly handled through an employer of record or a procurement partner with local presence. TalentHero’s equipment procurement and rental service exists for exactly this, sourcing and delivering equipment locally so a new hire is working on day one rather than week four.
Security and Asset Management
Equipment that leaves your office is equipment outside your network perimeter. Four things to put in place before the first shipment.
- Device encryption and endpoint protection. Full disk encryption on every company device, enforced rather than requested. Endpoint security software as standard.
- Mobile device management. MDM lets you push updates, enforce policy and remotely wipe a lost or unreturned device. For international teams this is close to essential, because remote wipe is often the only enforcement you actually have.
- An asset register. Record every item, its serial number, its value, who holds it, and where. This sounds bureaucratic until the first time someone leaves and nobody can say what they had.
- An offboarding process. Define how equipment comes back, who pays for return shipping, and what happens if it does not come back. Agree it at onboarding, in writing, not at exit.
A VPN remains worth providing where people work from untrusted networks, though for most cloud-based workflows modern identity and access controls do more than a VPN does.
How to Build an Equipment Policy
Each step builds on the one before it.
- List the roles, not the people. Group your team by what they actually do. An engineer, a support agent and a designer need different machines, and a per-person approach does not scale.
- Assign each role to an equipment tier. Using the table at the top, define exactly what each role receives as standard and what is available on request.
- Price it per role and per market. Equipment costs differ by country. Price each tier in each market you hire in rather than applying a single global figure.
- Choose your model per market. Company-provided, stipend, reimbursement, or hybrid. The decision may legitimately differ by country based on tax treatment and shipping practicality.
- Confirm the tax treatment in each market before launching, since this determines whether your allowance is worth what you think it is worth to the employee.
- Write it down and publish it. Ambiguity produces inconsistency, and inconsistency in benefits produces resentment. State what people get, how to request extras, and what happens when they leave.
- Review annually. Prices move, refresh cycles come due, and what counted as a generous allowance three years ago may now be below market.
Common Mistakes
- Giving everyone the identical package. A support agent does not need a designer’s machine, and a designer is hampered by a support agent’s.
- Budgeting for hardware and forgetting the refresh. Equipment is a recurring cost, not a one-time one. A three to four year cycle needs a line in the budget every year.
- Shipping internationally without checking customs. Duties, delays and voided warranties turn a routine purchase into a problem.
- Leaving asset recovery until someone resigns. Agree the return process in the employment agreement, at the start.
- Treating software licenses as part of the equipment budget. They are a separate, recurring, and usually larger cost.
- Setting a stipend and never revisiting it. An allowance set in 2022 buys noticeably less now.
Equip Your Global Team Properly
Getting equipment right is unglamorous and it compounds. A person who starts on day one with a working machine, a decent chair and a stable connection is productive in week one. A person waiting three weeks on a customs-held laptop is forming a view of your company that is hard to reverse.
If your team is spread across several countries, the hard part is not deciding what to buy. It is getting it there, keeping it supported, and knowing where it is. TalentHero handles equipment procurement and rental locally across APAC and beyond, alongside employment, payroll and workspace, so a new hire is set up before their start date.
Get in touch with TalentHero to talk through what your team needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What office equipment should you give to your remote workers?
At minimum: a laptop or desktop, an external monitor, a keyboard and mouse, a noise-cancelling headset, an ergonomic chair, a desk or desk allowance, and support toward reliable internet.
Add role-dependent items on top: a second monitor for developers and analysts, an external webcam for client-facing roles, a higher-spec machine for engineering and creative work, and power backup for anyone in a market with unreliable electricity.
2. How much does it cost to equip a remote worker?
A full home office setup typically costs $1,500 to $3,500 depending on role and equipment tier. Ongoing, an end-user computing device runs roughly $1,200 to $2,500 per employee per year fully loaded, including the device amortized over its refresh cycle, repairs and accessories.
3. What is the average home office stipend?
SHRM puts the employer average at roughly $891 to $901 per year. It scales with company size, from around $300 at companies under 50 employees to around $900 at companies over 5,000. A common 2026 structure is a one-time setup allowance of $1,000 to $1,500 plus $75 to $150 per month recurring.
4. Should I buy the equipment or give a stipend?
For international teams, a hybrid usually works best: the company provides and owns the laptop, and a stipend covers desk, chair, monitor and accessories that the employee sources locally.
Company-provided suits security-sensitive roles and teams concentrated in one or two countries. Stipends suit widely distributed teams and remove the problem of recovering assets across borders.
5. Is a home office stipend taxable?
It depends on the country and on how the policy is written. Some jurisdictions treat a properly documented equipment reimbursement as a non-taxable business expense, while an unrestricted cash allowance is more likely to be treated as taxable income.
Confirm the treatment in each market before launching the program, because correcting it afterward means amending payroll filings.
6. Do I have to provide equipment to remote workers?
It varies by jurisdiction. Some countries and some US states require employers to reimburse necessary business expenses, which can include home office equipment. Others leave it entirely to the employer.
Check the requirement in each market where you employ people, and treat the legal minimum as a floor rather than a policy.
7. How do I get equipment to an employee in another country?
You have three options: ship from a central location, which triggers customs duties and possible warranty problems; procure locally in the destination country, which is usually faster and cheaper; or give a stipend and let the employee buy it themselves.
Local procurement is the most practical route for most international teams, which is why it is commonly handled through an employer of record or a procurement partner with local presence.
8. How do I get equipment back when someone leaves?
Agree the process in writing at onboarding, not at exit. Record every item in an asset register with serial numbers and values, state who pays for return shipping, and define what happens if items are not returned.
For international employees with no local entity nearby, recovery is genuinely difficult, which is one of the stronger practical arguments for the stipend model where the employee owns the asset.
9. Should I provide equipment to contractors?
Be careful here. Supplying tools and equipment is one of the factors authorities weigh when assessing whether someone engaged as a contractor is really an employee. It is one factor among several rather than decisive, but if you are providing full equipment, directing daily work and they work only for you, the classification is worth reviewing.
10. What about internet costs for remote workers?
Set a minimum speed requirement rather than specifying a provider, and subsidize the cost of meeting it. An internet stipend is among the two most requested remote work benefits, typically $50 to $100 per month, and it is inexpensive relative to how much it affects daily working life.
