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Study: half of overtime worked unpaid

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Study: half of overtime worked unpaid
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Just under half of all overtime hours worked in Germany are not paid, according to a new study, with employees putting in an average of three unpaid overtime hours a month.

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Workers in Germany worked an average of 12.3 hours of overtime a month in 2010, just 6.9 hours of which on average was properly paid or otherwise compensated by their employers, wrote the Frankfurter Rundschau on Thursday, referring to a study by the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).

The study, which was based on data collected in 2010 by the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) showed that of the remaining overtime worked, 3.2 hours were not compensated in any way. The remaining 2.2 hours were only partially or inadequately paid.

According to the research, full-time workers put in over three times as many overtime hours than those with part-time jobs, resulting in an imbalance between men and women in the results.

The IWH says that more part-time jobs are held by men than by women, meaning that - on average - men work considerably more unpaid overtime hours than women every month.

The study found that male employees slogged away for an average of 4.3 unpaid overtime hours a month, whereas females toiled just 2.1 hours a month without being compensated.

Bosses and managers in leadership positions were the biggest workaholics, and worked an average of 19.2 hours of overtime a month.

Employees put in a total of 1.4 billion unpaid hours in Germany in 2010, the IWH calculated, amounting to 2.9 percent of all hours worked.

The Local/jlb

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