Australian workers are doing $91 billion worth of unpaid overtime each year, new research has revealed.
The study by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work shows that, on average, workers put in five weeks of unpaid overtime annually, negatively impacting their health, relationships, and financial wellbeing.
If workers were paid for all their hours, they would earn nearly $300 extra per fortnight, or $7,713 a year. The survey also found that younger workers aged 18 to 29 do the most unpaid overtime, averaging 4.4 hours a week, compared to the overall average of 3.6 hours. Full-time employees work 4.1 hours of unpaid overtime weekly.
A large majority—70%—of workers said unpaid overtime was expected at their workplace. Many reported that the extra hours led to physical fatigue (42%), stress or anxiety (32%), sleep deprivation (21%), and strained personal lives (29%).
The main reasons for unpaid overtime were “too much work” (41%) and “staff shortages” (31%). Fiona Macdonald, acting director of the Centre for Future Work, said unpaid overtime adds to cost-of-living pressures and harms worker wellbeing. However, she noted that new “Right to Disconnect” laws might be helping reduce unpaid overtime.
