Germans have been working less and less overtime for years, and the pandemic has not broken this trend - at least when it comes to the new “working time monitor” from the compensation consultancy salary.de.
In 2009, the average was 6.5 hours a week, according to the current data (2020 and 2021 together) it is only 2.9 hours.
However, the study also points out the pandemic-related increase in short-time working.
Overall, 48 percent of employees regularly worked longer than contractually agreed, with women posting an average of 2.1 hours less overtime than men (3.5 hours).
Meanwhile, only 32 percent of employees receive overtime compensation.
The study is not representative, but it is based on a rather extensive data set with “346,405 employment relationships”.
For the evaluation, an average of 254 working days with a 5-day week and 28.3 vacation days were assumed, according to Salary.de.
More salary - more overtime
Unsurprisingly, managers tend to work more overtime than specialists.
The former come to an average of 7.6 per week compared to 2.5 - and according to the data, skilled workers receive financial compensation in 34 percent of cases.
Among executives, this is only the case for 14 percent.
In general, the number of overtime hours increases with the salary: If a skilled worker with a gross annual salary between 40,001 and 60,000 euros works an average of 2.7 hours more each week, in the salary class 60,001 to 80,000 euros it is 3.7 and from 100,001 euros 6.1 overtime hours.
The top position in the industry comparison is taken by management consultancy with an average of 4.7 hours of overtime, while the number of additional working hours in legal advice with 1.9 hours and in authorities (1.8 hours) remains rather manageable.