Business casual gains on stuffy business suit

Watch out power suit. In the office, khakis are beating the pants off you.

Business casual is increasingly the wardrobe of choice among executives, a new survey has found. Almost 80 percent of executives prefer to wear more casual attire at work, and 62 percent said business casual is their standard workplace dress code.

"Bosses are much more concerned with the quality of your work than the price of your clothes," said Marc Cenedella, president of TheLadders.com, a job Web site for high-end professionals, which conducted the survey.

The trend appears to be catching on: 42.2 percent of executives said more companies are adopting a less formal dress code, and 22.3 percent said the definition of "business casual" has stretched to include attire such as jeans.

The survey also found that casually dressed employees are viewed as creative and fun, but run the risk of being taken less seriously.

Before you swap your three-piece suit for Levis, executives said formally dressed workers are perceived as more senior level.

The nonscientific survey was conducted online in August and included more than 1,100 executives who earn $100,000 or more annually and are members of TheLadders.com.