Aussies missing out on $8k pay

AUSTRALIANS are working six weeks of unpaid overtime on average every year and missing out on more than $8000 in pay as a result, new research has found.

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work has found unpaid overtime is costing the workforce $92bn in total each year — roughly the same as the commonwealth’s annual expenditure on healthcare.

The left wing think tank surveyed a representative sample of 1410 Australians over three days in September, asking them about their working habits in order to analyse “time theft”. Seven in ten workers reported having performed work outside of scheduled working hours, while only 29 per cent indicated that they have not done overtime.

On average, respondents reported working 4.3 hours of unpaid overtime in the week of the survey, equivalent to about 224.3 hours per year per worker on average, or six standard 38hour work weeks.

Full-time workers reported working on average 4.9 hours in unpaid overtime per week.

The two youngest age groups — those between 18-29 and 30-39 — performed the most unpaid overtime at 5.2 and 5.3 hours per week respectively.

The Australia Institute’s analysis of its poll found the average worker is losing $8188 per year or $315 per fortnight in wages because they aren’t being paid for all the time they work.

More than half of workers — 56 per cent — were unsatisfied with their working hours, with 10 per cent wanting fewer paid hours and 46 per cent seeking more paid hours.

People in casual employment were much more likely to want to work more paid hours.

The report also found that workers’ share of Australia’s national income has been at an all-time low of 44 per cent this year, compared with an almost record high profit share of 30 per cent.