More on overtime

How much overtime do British workers do?
The Office for National Statistics has Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).  It has data on hours and wages by occupation, gender and region.
According to the TUC there was £32 billion unpaid hours put in in 2018. They calculated that by occupation teachers put in the most unpaid hours with an average of 12.1 per week.

For a comparison of longer term trends, consult the full text of the Working Long Hours: a Review of the Evidence Kodz J, Davis S, Lain D, Strebler M, Rick J, Bates P, Cummings J, Meager N | Employment Relations Research Series ERRS16, Department of Trade and Industry, Oct 2003.  This found that 11% of employees were working over 48 hours per week.

Long term trends and international comparisons are also covered in this paper: Extreme working hours in Western Europe and North America: A new aspect of polarization by Anna S. Burger published in 2015.
It analysed extreme working hours in sixteen Western European countries, Canada, and the United States between 1970 and 2010.

In December 2017 the Resolution Foundation published a paper which reviewed the evidence of overtime and policy options. It considers those who depend on overtime to make up their wages, enforced cultures of long hours working and the payment of overtime.

What is the impact of overtime on health and well-being?

HEPI published a document this week on the rising cases of stress in UK academics

Good evidence can often be found in systematic reviews of literature. This recent title ‘Working hours and the onset of depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.’  Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that “The effect of overtime work on depressive disorder remains inconclusive and may be small if not negligible.”