Research from job board, reed.co.uk, reveals teachers and engineers at the top of the overworked list

Britain’s workforce clocks up £43 billion worth of unpaid overtime every year according to the latest study of 1,515 UK employees.

The research from reed.co.uk revealed that one in five UK employees work eight or more hours of overtime every week, the equivalent of one whole extra day. Yet only 40 per cent are paid for the additional hours put in.

Over two thirds of those surveyed admitted to working some form of overtime, and three in four workers admitted to being ‘always-on’ as they constantly check their work email outside of office hours.

On average, they work almost four hours of overtime each week – that’s around 192 extra hours every year or 24 working days per person, almost the same as the average worker’s holiday entitlement.

If this overtime were paid, the average UK employee could see a 10 per cent salary rise, based on ONS figures, of around and extra £2,300 per annum.

The current sectors with the most hours of unpaid overtime

Education – 6.2 hours a week

Engineering – 6.2 hours a week

Transport & logistics – 6.2 hours a week

Sales – 6.2 hours a week

Hospitality – 6.1 hours a week

Construction & property – 5.8 hours a week

IT & Tech – 5.6 hours a week

Retail – 5.5 hours a week

Marketing/media/creative – 5.1 hours a week

Customer service – 5.1 hours a week

Health & Social Care – 4.9 hours per week

Voluntary & Charity – 4.9 hours per week

Banking & Finance – 4.8 hours per week

Admin & Secretarial – 4.1 hours per week