The distribution of overtime in Germany

Abstract

"Paid and unpaid overtime lead to an extension of the working time actually performed by employees. In theory, various different approaches offer an explanation for paid and unpaid overtime. Here there are various reasons to use or respectively perform paid and unpaid overtime, both for the employer and also for the employee. With data from the Socioeconomic Panel, the distribution of overtime is analysed in this report according to various characteristics. Full-time employees perform more paid and unpaid overtime per month than part-time employees. With part-time employees, paid overtime is more usual than unpaid. For workers, paid overtime has a higher significance than unpaid overtime. In the group of office staff, paid overtime is done to a lesser extent while the number of hours of unpaid overtime increases with the level of the job and the position in the establishment. In the economic areas of the industrial sector, paid overtime occurs to a greater scope than in the economic sectors of the service sector. On the other hand, the number of unpaid overtime in some economic areas of the service sector is higher than in the industrial sector. Transitory overtime only leads to a change in the situation and distribution of working time. It can be administered and documented on working time accounts." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku)

Cite article

Weber, E., Wanger, S., Weigand, R. & Zapf, I. (2014): Verbreitung von Überstunden in Deutschland. (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung. Aktuelle Berichte), Nürnberg, 7 p.