Working Long Hours in New Zealand: A profile of long hours workers using data from the 2006 Census

Working Long Hours in New Zealand: A profile of lo…
01 Mar 2008
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This paper uses data from the 2006 New Zealand Census to outline a demographic profile of New Zealanders who work long hours. The Census contains working hours information for 1,832,490 people. Of these, 415,641 reported working 50 or more hours each week, with this representing 22.68% of the workforce and 29.08% of full-time workers.

Key Results

Gender: Three-quarters of those working long hours are men. Around a third (32%) of working men work 50 or more hours a week, and 12% of working women work these hours. These proportions rise to 36% and 19% respectively when only full-time workers are considered.

Education: The data shows that those with the highest qualifications, such as masters’ and doctorate degrees, are significantly more likely to work long hours. However, the largest group of long hours workers are those who have no qualifications, and around 40% of those working 50 or more hours a week have educational qualifications equal to a Level 2 certificate or lower (which includes those with no qualifications). This is similar to the educational levels of the total workforce.

Ethnicity: While European and “Other” ethnicities are slightly more likely to work long hours, overall, the ethnic profile of those working long hours matches that of the total workforce.

Age: Workers in the 40–54-year-old age brackets are slightly over-represented amongst long hours workers, making up 41.6% of long hours workers but only 35.4% of the total workforce.

Income: Long hours workers are more likely to have higher personal incomes relative to the total workforce, with 12% of long hours workers having incomes of $100,001 or more (compared with 5% of the total workforce). A third (38%) of those working 50 or more hours a week have personal incomes of $40,000 or less (compared with 60% of the total workforce), and 22% have incomes of $30,000 or less (compared with 41% of the total workforce). As income increases, the proportion of employees working long hours increases. Long hours workers were also more likely to report higher household incomes relative to the total workforce.

Gender and income: Men who work long hours are more likely to have higher annual incomes than women who work these hours. A quarter (26%) of men who work 50 or more hours a week have incomes greater than $70,000 while only 17% of women working these hours earn above this level.

Occupation: Large numbers of long hours workers are found in occupations classified as “Specialist Managers”, “Farmers and Farm Managers”, “Chief Executives, General  Managers and Legislators”, “Education Professionals”, “Hospitality, Retail and Service Managers” and “Road and Rail Drivers”.

Industry: Industries with both high numbers and high proportions of long hours workers are agriculture and road transport. High numbers of long hours workers are also found in professional, scientific and technical services, preschool and school education, and construction services. Location: In line with the prevalence of long hours workers in agriculture (industry) and “Farmers and Farm Managers” (occupation), those in rural areas are disproportionately represented amongst long hours workers.

Family type: Workers in couple households, both with and without children, are slightly over-represented amongst long hours workers, and these workers, along with those in one-person households, are the most likely to work long hours. However, differences between the groups are very small, with the living characteristics of those working long hours very similar to the profile of the total workforce. Workers with younger children are slightly over-represented in long hours workers, as are workers with three or four children.

Dual earner couples: Dual earner couples with one child are more likely to work 80 or more combined hours than those with more children, with the proportion working these hours decreasing as the number of children increases. Overall, 29% or 98,466 dual earner couples with dependent children work a combined 80 or more hours each week, and 8% or 27,063 dual earner couples work 100 or more hours per week between them. There were 12,963 couples with dependent children where each partner worked 50 or more hours a week.

Page last modified: 15 Mar 2018