NOTES
ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION
This publication contains results relating to the Survey of Preferred Working Hours of Wage and Salary Earners conducted throughout Queensland in October 2006.
Information was obtained from wage and salary earners about the hours they usually work, the reasons they usually worked those hours, whether payment or compensation was received for additional hours, whether they would prefer to work more hours or fewer hours and, where applicable, the reasons they do not do so. Membership of a trade union, educational qualifications, income level and sources of income were also collected.
NOTES ABOUT THE ESTIMATES
Table 1 of this publication provides a comparison between selected data items from the 2006 survey and a similar survey conducted in 1999 (Working Hours of Wage and Salary Earners, Queensland, (cat. no. 6344.3). Owing to a difference in scope between these two surveys, the 2006 data has been adjusted to enable comparisons with 1999 data. For this reason there may be some small differences in the 2006 data between table 1 and the remainder of the tables in this publication. See Explanatory Notes, paragraph 12 for details on scope and other changes between the 1999 and 2006 surveys.
ROUNDING
Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals. Published percentages are calculated prior to rounding of the figures and therefore some discrepancy may occur between these percentages and percentages calculated from the rounded figures.
INQUIRIES
For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or the Statistical Consultancy Unit on Brisbane (07) 3222 6012.
SUMMARY COMMENTARY
USUAL HOURS OF WORK
In October 2006, an estimated 1.6 million wage and salary earners resided in private dwellings in Queensland. Of these, 842,500 were male wage and salary earners who usually worked an average of 40.7 hours per week compared with 786,800 female wage and salary earners who usually worked an average of 31.7 hours per week.
In total, 505,000 (31.0%) wage and salary earners in Queensland usually worked more than 40 hours per week.
Across age groups, male wage and salary earners in the 35-44 years age group reported usually working the highest average hours per week (44.7 hours), while for female wage and salary earners, average hours usually worked per week were the highest for the 25-34 years age group (34.0 hours).
Average Hours per week usually worked, Wage and Salary Earners
Wage and salary earners with lower annual incomes tended to work fewer average usual hours per week than those with higher incomes.
Compared with wage and salary earners in other industries, those employed in Mining reported usually working the highest average weekly hours (50.3 hours). Of all occupation groups, Managers reported the highest number of average hours usually worked per week (45.4 hours).
MAIN REASON FOR USUAL HOURS OF WORK
The most common reason given by wage and salary earners for working their usual number of hours was that they were 'standard, award or contract hours'. Just over one-quarter (27.9%) of those working less than 16 hours per week reported 'study commitments' as a main reason, and 63.6% of those working more than 40 hours reported 'to get the job done' or 'expectation of the job'. Almost half (45.3%) of those who usually worked unpaid hours reported 'to get the job done' as the main reason for working their usual hours.
UNPAID HOURS OF WORK
One in five (19.9% or 323,600 ) wage and salary earners reported that they usually worked unpaid hours. Of male wage and salary earners, 19.5% (164,000) reported an average of 8.2 unpaid weekly hours and 20.3% (159,600) of female wage and salary earners reported an average of 7.0 unpaid weekly hours
Education and Training was the industry with the highest proportion of wage and salary earners who reported usually working unpaid hours (47.0%), followed by Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services (33.0%).
Of all occupation groups, Managers represented the highest proportion of wage and salary earners that usually worked unpaid hours (41.7% or 49,900) closely followed by Professionals (40.8% or 102,200).
Most wage and salary earners who usually worked unpaid hours (62.7% or 203,000) received neither an allowance in their pay for unpaid hours worked nor time off in lieu.
A quarter of wage and salary earners who worked unpaid hours (24.5% or 79,300) received only time off in lieu for these hours and 6.4% (20,800) received only an allowance in their pay.
PAID OVERTIME
In October 2006, 206,400 (12.7%) wage and salary earners reported that they usually worked paid overtime hours.
Of all male wage and salary earners, 18.9% (159,500) worked an average of 7.6 hours of paid overtime per week while 6.0% (47,000) of female wage and salary earners worked an average of 4.5 hours of paid overtime per week.
Manufacturing (27.6%) and Construction (27.2%) were the industries with the highest proportions of wage and salary earners working paid overtime.
Of all occupation groups, 'Machinery Operators and Drivers' and 'Technicians and Trades Workers' had the highest proportions of wage and salary earners who reported usually working some paid overtime each week (29.2% and 26.4%, respectively). In comparison, Managers (5.3%) and Sales Workers (5.1%) had the lowest proportion of wage and salary earners who reported usually working some paid overtime each week.
PREFERRED WORKING HOURS
Just over half of all wage and salary earners preferred their usual hours per week (50.8% or 828,000) while one-third (33.4% or 545,300) reported that they would like to work fewer hours. The remainder (14.1% or 229,500) reported that they would like to work more hours per week.
Preferred working hours, Wage and Salary Earners
Prefer fewer hours
Of those who usually work some unpaid hours (323,600 or 19.9%), most (58.1%) preferred to work fewer hours per week.
The Financial and Insurance Services industry had the highest proportion of wage and salary earners who would prefer to work fewer hours (48.3%). Of these, 24.0% were willing to work fewer hours for less pay.
More than half of Managers (57.8%) reported that they would prefer to work fewer hours per week with 22.3% of these wage and salary earners willing to work fewer hours for less pay. Similarly, almost half of Professionals (47.6%) reported that they would prefer to work fewer hours with 24.0% of these wage and salary earners being willing to work fewer hours for less pay.
Employees who would prefer to work fewer hours, by Occupation
The most common reasons given for preferring to work fewer hours was 'leisure/ more time for self/ lifestyle' (50.4%) and 'prefer to spend more time with family' (28.2%).
The most common reason reported by wage and salary earners (who preferred fewer hours) for not working fewer hours was 'income needs' (37.4%).
Prefer more hours
The Accommodation and Food Services industry had the highest proportion of wage and salary earners who would prefer to work more hours (25.8%). Of all the occupation groups, Labourers had the highest proportion of wage and salary earners who would prefer to work more hours (23.3%).
COMPARISON BETWEEN 1999 AND ADJUSTED 2006 DATA
This section provides a comparison between selected data items from the 2006 survey and a similar survey conducted in 1999 (Working Hours of Wage and Salary Earners, Queensland). Owing to a difference in scope between these two surveys, the 2006 data has been adjusted to compare with 1999 data.
In October 2006, the proportion of wage and salary earners who reported that they usually worked more than 40 hours (31.0%) was similar to that reported in 1999 (30.7%).
From 1999 to 2006, the proportion of male wage and salary earners working paid overtime increased from 16.8% to 19.0% while the proportion of female wage and salary earners working paid overtime remained relatively stable over the same time period, 6.1% in 1999 and 6.0% in 2006.
From 1999 to 2006, the proportion of female wage and salary earners working unpaid hours increased by 2.0 percentage points (18.3% to 20.3%). This compares to a decrease of 0.9 percentage points for male wage and salary earners working unpaid hours over the same time period (20.2% to 19.3%).
From 1999 to 2006, the proportion of male wage and salary earners who preferred to work fewer hours increased 0.7 percentage points to 34.5% while the proportion for females rose 3.1 percentage points to 31.9%.
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