Majority of workers ‘working for free’ until 9th March in unpaid overtime ⁰

The average amount of overtime workers put in equates to around 68 working days a year and the fact that only one third are paid for this means the majority of people are essentially working for free until the 9th of March each year, claims a new study. The research by TotallyMoney.com with OnePoll, which looked into overtime in the UK in 2017 found that unsurprisingly 60 percent of British workers say they don’t have a good work-life balance. Common reasons given for working overtime were pressures from colleague and excessive workloads; with almost 65 percent of people surveyed not being paid for overtime worked. Only a third of British workers say they typically leave work on time; which ties in with recent TUC analysis which revealed that the number of employees working longer hours grew by 15 percent over the last five years. Working longer hours, warns the union, not only has negative impacts on health, but can actually lead to workers being less productive.

There were some clear gender differences uncovered in the TotallyMoney.com report; with 43 percent of men saying they were paid for their overtime, while only 30 percent of women claimed are financially compensated for their extra working hours. Conversely, 24 percent of women feel pressured to work overtime in order to progress their career whereas only 11 percent men feel the same way. Women are also more likely to carry out work related duties while on holiday; as only 13 percent of men said they worked while on holiday, as opposed to 24 percent of women.

While Londoners do the most overtime out of any region in the UK by putting in an average of 9.6 hours a week, British employees work the longest hours in Europe, have the shortest lunch breaks and have the fewest public holidays, according to the TUC.

For more data click on the infographic here or take an overtime test here.