Weíre not working longer hours

Weíre not all working the long hours we think we are, and we should enjoy the May Day Bank Holiday rather than spending our time complaining about how hard weíre working. These are the conclusions of Dr John Philpott, Chief Economist at the CIPD, published today in a new Work Audit report.

Dr Philpott has analysed the facts surrounding UK working hours, in response to recent and ongoing claims about Britainís ílong hours cultureí. Arguing that the long hours debate gives a distorted picture of working time in the UK and often results in faulty policy prescriptions, Dr Philpott finds:

* The average working week has fallen by over an hour since the mid-1990s. Full-timers (now averaging 37.4 hours) are putting in around an hour and a half less each week, although part-timers (who only average 15.6 hours) are working half an hour longer.

* Likewise, between 1995 and 2003 the proportion of people usually working over 45 hours per week dropped from 25.8 per cent to 22.4 per cent. Men, who comprise 80 per cent of all long hours workers, account for the entire fall.

* The proportion of women working long hours has remained fairly constant at around 10 per cent, a rise in the share of women employed in managerial and professional jobs offsetting any tendency for shorter hours in such jobs. (This change in the composition of female jobs, together with a fall in the proportion of women working very short hours, explains why CIPD surveys find more women reporting that they are working longer.)

Philpott also argues that when making comparisons with other EU countries it is important to look at the spread of working hours:

* In continental Europe, the majority of people (typically two thirds or more) work a standard week of around 35 to 40 hours, with relatively few putting in longer or shorter hours.

* In the UK, by contrast, a ítypicalí working week is far harder to define. Although just under a quarter of British people in employment (6.3 million) work more than 45 hours a week - a far higher proportion than in other EU countries - just over a quarter put in fewer than 30 hours a week - also a far higher proportion.

Dr Philpott said: We all think weíre working longer hours than our Continental neighbours. But these figures show that it is just as easy to argue that the UK has a íshort hours cultureí by European standards.

Given that the length of the working week is falling, and that fewer men are working very long hours, the dissatisfaction people frequently express over working hours would seem to reflect the greater pressure they are under in both the workplace and the home rather than the amount of time they put in at the office or factory per se. This suggests that the best policy response to overwork is to encourage a restructuring of working hours rather than to impose a substantial cut in the length of the working week as recommended by supporters of a French-style statutory 35-hour week.

Recent research from the CIPD (see íNotes to editorsí, below) shows that the majority of UK employees who work over 48 hours per week do not wish to have the right to do so taken away from them.

Philpott continues: Advocates of shorter hours should instead focus their attention on the need for UK employers to improve the skills of their staff and adopt better management practices. If more employers did this, the economy could enjoy a double whammy of higher productivity and the option of allowing shorter hours for workers without loss of pay and total output.

By contrast, if employers were compelled to cut hours the response would be to try to raise hourly productivity by increasing the intensity of each hour worked. This of course would simply pile even greater pressure on workers to get more done in less time - a self-defeating outcome if the objective is to reduce overwork and related stress.