The Price of Non-Standard Hours: Evidence on Overtime, Part-Time and Shift Pay

Abstract

When bargaining over or regulating the payment for working time, researchers and policymakers define ‘standard working hours to be hours that coincide with full-time workweeks performed on weekdays during daytime (Anxo & Karlsson, 2019). However, the extent to which these standard hours still constitute the most common experience of European workers is increasingly questionable. Increasing shares of European employees work hours the diverge from these ‘standard hours’, including employees on part-time contracts, those in jobs that regularly require weekend or evening/night shifts, and overtime hours (Anxo & Karlsson, 2019; Eurofound, 2022; Lewis et al., 2008; Wharton & Blair-Loy, 2016).

The earnings employees should receive for performing work during these non-standard hours, are actively debated, negotiated and regulated by governments and social partners alike (Jirjahn, 2008; Keune, 2007; Lehndorff, 2007; Rubery et al., 2005). Collective agreements often include provisions for higher hourly wages (i.e., premiums) during non-standard hours. The premiums are negotiated in compensation for the inconvenience that anti-social hours imply to workers’ social and family lives, the higher effort required from workers compared to regular working times, as well as the toll that irregular, anti-social and long hours take on employee health (Hart & Ma, 2010; Ilsøe , 2012; Piasna et al., 2024; Yu & Kuo, 2022). Part-time workers are, at least in theory, protected from wage penalties for downwardly deviating from standard hours by European legislation prohibiting discrimination and guaranteeing equal (pro rata) rights compared to full-time workers (Figart & Golden, 2000; Nicolaisen & Kavli, 2019).

In this third report, we aimed to understand the impact of working non-standard hours on the earnings of European employees. Secondly we study the wage level at which these premiums and penalties for formally agreeing with an employer to work non-standard hours are set. This includes being on a part-time contracts, performing paid overtime hours, and being scheduled to work evening, night, and weekend shifts. This report was written for the BARTIME project on the monetary rewards of working time dimensions in collective bargaining and in the working population, co-funded by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (Project No. 101126498). This third BARTIME report focuses on the question which groups of workers earn premium and penalty rates associated with non-standard hours. As such, it does not address the unpaid performance of non-standard hours, which is generally believed to be widespread across Europe (Conway & Sturges, 2014; Eurostat 2025a, 2025b, 2025c, 2025d, 2025e; Taiji & Mills, 2020). We address this limitation in the fifth BARTIME report (Elias Moreno & Besamusca, 2025), which uses data reported by employees in order to understand who works non-standard hours.