date: 20 February 2008

embargo: 00:01 hours 22 February 2008

Single women in their 30s do more unpaid overtime than anyone else

Four out of ten single women in their 30s (39 per cent) do unpaid overtime at work - making them more likely to do unpaid overtime than any other group in the workforce - according to an analysis of official statistics by the TUC released today (Friday) on Work Your Proper Hours Day.

Single women in every age group are more likely to do unpaid overtime than single men in the same age group, confounding the usual assumption that men put in the longest hours. Just over a quarter (26 per cent) of men in their 30s do unpaid overtime.

Work Your Proper Hours Day is the date when the one in five employees who do unpaid overtime would, on average, get paid if they did all their unpaid work at the start of the year. The TUC is urging employees to take a proper lunch break today and to leave work on time to remind managers of all the extra unpaid hours their staff put in. Even better, Britain's bosses should say thank you today for the extra work by taking their staff to lunch or an after-work coffee or cocktail.

Today's figures show that while women who do not have children are more likely to do unpaid overtime than childless men, the gender gap reverses when they have children. The proportion of women doing unpaid overtime drops from 24.2 per cent to 17 per cent when they have children. However, the proportion of men doing unpaid overtime is relatively unchanged when they have children, dropping from 22.6 per cent to 21.7 per cent.

After several years of decline, the total value of unpaid overtime across Britain reached a record high of nearly £25 billion in 2007. The total number of employees working unpaid overtime increased by 103,000 to reach nearly five million. Employees who work unpaid overtime would receive an extra £4,955 a year if they were paid for the extra hours they are putting in. The average amount of unpaid overtime is seven hours and six minutes a week.

The TUC has found huge variations in the proportion of people doing unpaid overtime between occupations. The legal, media, teaching, architecture and corporate management professions are the worst offenders when it comes to unpaid overtime.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Most people think long hours working is mainly a problem for men. But when you look at who is most likely to put in those extra unpaid hours at work the picture changes completely. Single women do more unpaid overtime than mothers, fathers and single men.

'Women who want to get on at work need to put in longer hours than anyone else, but as soon as they have children they no longer have that option. It is hardly surprising therefore that the senior levels of most organisations are male and that the gender pay gap stubbornly persists.

'But long hours working and unpaid overtime is not confined to any particular group in the workforce, and after falling slightly is back on the increase. We are not saying that we should turn into a nation of clock-watchers, or that staff should not put in extra effort when there is a rush or a crisis. But those extra hours are too often taken for granted and, if allowed to build up, can damage people's health, relationships and morale at work. Fairer workloads, better management and a change in culture could make a real difference.'

Fawcett Society Campaigns Officer Kat Banyard said: 'There is a significant gap between the amount of unpaid overtime worked by mothers and women with no children, yet no such gap exists between fathers and childless men. Evidently women are being presented with impossible 'choices'. They are forced to choose between caring for a family at home or maximising their career opportunities in a workplace that measures performance by the number of hours put in.

'We need to transform workplaces so they enable everyone to have a good work-life balance. By creating more flexible jobs and putting an end to the unproductive long working hours culture, individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole will all reap the benefits.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- All figures on hours are from the Government's Labour Force Survey Summer 2007 and Annual Survey of Hours and Earners 2007, and are for employees only.

- *parents with non-dependent children excluded.

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

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Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Elly Brenchley T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: ebrenchley@tuc.org.uk

Press release (1,100 words) issued 22 Feb 2008