Brits hardest workers in Europe

Employees in the UK work 68 days of overtime per year on average, with around 65% admitting that they were being unpaid, according to a study by TotallyMoney. Workers in Britain have been revealed to work the longest hours, take the shortest lunch breaks and have the fewest public holidays than any other country in Europe.

The extra hours add up to over eight hours of work per week as many are essentially working an added working day, often free of charge. While a third of employees admitted they leave work on time, some sectors suffer more than others. Teachers and those in the healthcare sector reportedly work between six and eight hours overtime a week on average, with only just over half of health workers being paid for the overtime and 80% of teachers going without pay for the extra hours.

Concerns have been raised by the study over the effects that gender could have on how much overtime you’re expected to do without pay. 30% of women, compared to 43% of men, claimed they were paid for their overtime, while around a quarter of women felt pressured to work more hours to progress their career compared to around a fifth of men.

Longer working numbers have grown by a notable 15% within the last five years, as many say that although they are working extra hours, one in four feel more run down due to their higher workload. The study implies that while the work hours may be regularly rising for many across the country, the quality of work may be affected as 23% admit their work is negatively affecting their diets and personal lives.

Setting up an overtime calculator, TotallyMoney is hoping that workers can take back control and identify how much work you could be giving away for free.

“Say you arrive 20 minutes early and work half an hour over lunch each day. Add to that another 20 minutes at the end of the day to finish up,” explained the TotallyMoney team. “Based on these small overtime minutes each day you’ll be working an extra 283.3 hours extra each year. Based on a salary of £27K (the UK average), that represents £4,500 of lost income.”