Off the clock? Working time misperceptions and labour market outcomes

Thomas Breda (), Vladimir Pecheu and Baptiste Roux
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Thomas Breda: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Vladimir Pecheu: The Pennsylvania State University, United States.
Baptiste Roux: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, CMH - Centre Maurice Halbwachs - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Département de Sciences sociales ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres

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Abstract: This paper documents a gap between workers' formal working time arrangements and their own reports of them, and examines what this gap reveals about informal working time flexibility. Combining administrative and survey data at the individual level, we construct a new and unique data set which shows that nearly 20% of the workforce mistakenly report that they work under day contracts, with no monitoring of hours, while they are actually paid through a standard hours contract. This reveals that many workers with various profiles may be misinformed about the legal environment governing something as fundamental as their working time. We show that these misreporting workers differ from classic workers in terms of working conditions: they perform more unpaid overtime hours but have a higher wage rate per contractual hour, so that their true compensation per hour worked is similar. Working time rules appear not to be fully applied to misreporters, but we find no evidence that employers use the discrepancy to extract rents. Non-compliance seems to operate as an informal working time arrangement facilitating a gradual transition between standard hours contracts and day contracts.

Date: 2026-12
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Published in Labour Economics, 2026, 103, ⟨10.1016/j.labeco.2026.102971⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-05837174

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2026.102971

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