Paid and Unpaid Overtime Working in Germany and the UK

David Bell, Robert Hart, Olaf Hübler and Wolfgang Schwerdt (wolfgang.schwerdt@ecb.int)
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Wolfgang Schwerdt: European Central Bank

No 133, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Significant numbers of employees work more hours in the workplace than their contract stipulates. Such overtime work can either be paid or unpaid. This research considers overtime working in Germany and the UK and shows that the quantitative significance of both paid and unpaid overtime is greater in the UK. Empirical work is based on the UK Labour Force Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel in 1993. Overtime influences the effective average hourly wage positively in the case where overtime is paid at premium rates and negatively where such hours are not remunerated. We demonstrate via Mincer wage growth equations that accounting for unpaid work leads to revised estimates of experience and tenure both within and between the two countries. We estimate overtime hours equations, using these to test several of our theories that might explain the apparent irrationality of unpaid work.

Keywords: Unpaid Overtime; hours determination; earnings effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J22 J23 J33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2000-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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