Why do people work overtime hours? Paid and unpaid overtime working in the Netherlands and Germany Woliweb research meeting 23 june 2006

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Why do people work overtime hours? Paid
and unpaid overtime working in the Netherlands
and Germany Woliweb research meeting 23 june
2006

• Kea Tijdens

Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour
Studies Universiteit van Amsterdam
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Employer driven overtime

• extended hours mostly employer-driven (Peetz,
  AUS, 2003)
• unemployment rates decrease overtime current
  level of production increase overtime, yet not
  the expected level (Kraft, GER, 1989)
• firm size positively related to
  overtime(Duchesne, CAN, 1997)

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Employee-driven overtime

• interactions of private and on-the-job use of
  computers increase unpaid overtime (Hubler, GER,
  2000)
• workplace culture important employees
  internalise overtime pressure (Peetz, AUS, 2003)
• skilled workers more overtime than unskilled
  (Bauer and Zimmerman, GER, 1999)

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Who has overtime hours

• men more overtime than women15-24 yrs
  low-skilled more paid overtime45-54 yrs
  skilled more unpaid overtimelittle overtime for
  lone parents (Duchesne, CAN, 1997)
• men newcomers work overtime, leavers dont
  (Bockerman, FIN, 2002)
• empirical evidence to what extent overtime is
  employer- or employee-driven is lacking

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Hypotheses

• Employer-driven overtime depend on
• workforce size, i.e. full-time and part-time
  staffing levels
• the incidence, duration and predictability of
  peak demand periods
• Employee-driven overtime depend on
• the need for sufficient income
• the wish to obtain promotion
• to get the work done
• to keep jobs in case of downsizing

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Detailing overtime

• Overtime payment
• premium-paid overtime
• paid overtime
• overtime compensated by time-off
• uncompensated overtime
• Employee-level performance measure
• output driven (salaried workers)
• hours-driven (hourly paid workers)

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Overtime decisions

• Overtime decisions
• employer-demanded with and without
  employee-refusal
• voluntary employee decision, with and without
  employer-demand

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WageIndicator data selection

• countries en releases selected
• Germany (DE) and Netherlands (NL)
• for release 1-6 (sept04-mar06)
• selection-1
• employees, excluding self-employed etc.
• selection-2
• working hours agreed with employer
• DE NL
• not agreed 5 4
• agreed in writing 88 85
• agreed verbally 7 11
• number of observations (unweighted)
• DE 41,326
• NL 47,749

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What working hours are agreed
DE NL
1 Full-time hours per week 89 74
2 Part-time hours per week 8 23
3 Annualised hours 2 1
4 Flexible hours 1 2
6 I work on call 0 0
7 Other 0 0
Total 100 100
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What overtime arrangements apply
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Working overtime hours (gt1 hr per week)
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Overtime and payment

• defining hourly paid workers
• paid overtime with bonus without bonus
• overtime time-compensated
• defining salaried workers
• unpaid overtime
• frequencies DE NL
• 1 overtime and salaried 4.2 5.8
• 2 overtime and hourly paid 8.7 17.2
• 3 no overtime 87.2 76.9
• Total 100 100

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Conclusions 1

• age
• NL DE old age groups perform more paid and more
  unpaid overtime
• education
• NL DE higher educated perform more unpaid
  overtime compared to lower educated
• NL DE as for paid overtime very little
  differences across education groups
• gender children
• NL DE males with children perform the most
  overtime
• household income
• NL DE unpaid overtime increases with income
• paid overtide decreases with income
• partner
• NL DE unpaid overtime does not depend on
  partner
• NL DE paid overtime more often when partner

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Conclusions 2

• industry
• NL DE very few differences across industry (4
  cat), least in agri/manufact/construction
• collective agreement
• NL DE less unpaid overtime when covered, paid
  overtime not affected by coverage
• NL DE as for paid overtime very little
  differences across education groups
• firmsize
• NL DE in smaller firms more unpaid overtime
• NL in smaller firms more paid overtime

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Employee driven overtime NL(logistic regression)
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Employee driven overtime DE
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Employer driven overtime NL
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Employer driven overtime DE