Mostly unpaid
Employees work 1.3 billion hours of overtime
May 9, 2024, 10:35 a.m
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Complaints about an alleged lack of work ethic among Germans are on the rise. However, this cannot be seen in the number of overtime hours. Because most of these are not paid, the state is also missing out on billions.
While employer representatives complain about employees’ alleged lack of willingness to work and demand measures to increase working hours, employees work well over a billion hours of overtime per year – more than half of them unpaid. A good 1.3 billion hours of overtime were worked in Germany last year, as can be seen from the Federal Ministry of Labor’s answer to a question from left-wing MP Susanne Ferschl, which the “Rheinische Post” reports on. At 775 million or a good 58 percent, more than half of them were unpaid. The ministry, in turn, relies on data from the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA). Accordingly, the total overtime corresponded to 835,000 full-time positions.
The enormous number of overtime hours contrasts with demands to increase working hours and, in particular, to make overtime more attractive. “Germany discusses too much about the conditions of non-work and too little about the value of work,” said the President of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) recently. Germany must be made attractive again as a location. “This also means that we will all have to work more and longer,” Dulger made clear. Among other things, the FDP proposed making overtime more attractive from a tax perspective.
Compared to the previous year 2022, the number of overtime hours worked in 2023 fell by around 100 million. But compared to 2020, there was a slight increase of 20 million. From the perspective of the left, the trend towards overtime is unbroken. Because 2023 was a weak economic year, the economy shrank by 0.3 percent. Nevertheless, employees worked hardly less overtime than in better previous years. An average of 31.6 overtime hours were worked per employee in 2023, of which 13.2 were paid and 18.4 were unpaid. In 2022, when the economy was still expanding at 1.9 percent, the number of overtime hours per employee was only a good three hours higher at 34.4.
The Left estimates that companies saved 32 billion euros in wage costs through unpaid overtime last year. This value results from multiplying the number of unpaid overtime hours in 2023 (775 million) by the average labor costs per hour worked – 41.30 euros, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
“Employers save billions in wage costs through unpaid overtime, while employees suffer from extended working hours and constant demands for flexibility,” said Ferschl. Five years ago, the European Court of Justice ruled that recording working hours was mandatory to protect employees. “But the federal government continues to sleep and does not introduce a law that makes it easier for employees to claim their overtime and protect themselves from wage theft,” criticized Ferschl. Unpaid overtime would also result in large tax losses for the state.