In the latest report on work-life balance by the Trade Union Congress they reveal that there is a significant proportion of individuals in Britain working ‘extreme’, overtime, i.e. 10 hours or more a week extra, without getting paid. In fact over the years the numbers have steadily increased which has led to around 900,000 people working ‘extreme’ overtime. The 26th of February is an important occasion as it was the ‘Work Your Proper Hours Day’. This day marks the day when the average person would have started to get paid if they had lumped all their unpaid overtime at the start of the year. However, for the worst affected, TUC estimate the day will be the 26th of April. This highlights some significant discrepancies between work and pay and certainly means that employers get the better deal.

So are some professions worse than others? The answer simply is without a shadow of a doubt, yes. The report revealed that the worst two professions are lawyers and teachers with around 1 in 5 individuals regularly clocking over 17 extra hours a week unpaid. They were followed closely behind by social service managers. Furthermore, over half of all individuals in these professions regularly work overtime unpaid.

On average, last year around five million Brits worked an extra 7 hours per week which would have been worth an extra £5,000 per annum to each individual, had they been paid. Interestingly, more people in the public sector work overtime (around 1 in 4) compared to the private sector (around 1 in 6).

Are people happy with the current situation? According to the survey around half a million managers would be willing to work less even if they had to take a pay cut. While, on the other hand, 2.8 million part-time workers are willing to work longer hours in full-time positions. This reveals there is a clear mismatch between the hour’s people want and the hour’s that they are getting.