The Decline of Overtime Working in Britain

David Bell and Robert Hart

No 12651, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The share of overtime hours within total hours worked in Britain has declined from 4.8% to 2.9% between 1999 and 2018. This is equivalent to 321 thousand full-time jobs. We investigate this decline focussing on full-time and part-time males and females together with overtime pay effects that include the implications for the gender pay gap. We test for economic, structural and cyclical influences via a two-part regression model that allows us to differentiate between the incidence of overtime working and the average weekly hours of overtime workers. This investigation features collective bargaining coverage, job mobility, the minimum wage, industrial composition and the public/private sector dichotomy. The analysis covers the whole economy embracing nineteen 1-digit industries as well as a separate insight into the manufacturing industry where we feature vehicle manufacture.

Keywords: overtime hours; overtime pay; two-part regression model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J22 J31 J52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2019-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-lma and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - revised version published as 'The Decline of Paid Overtime in Britain' in: Journal of Industrial Relations, 2023, 2, 235-258

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