Research: Counting the hours

The hours worked by men is having an impact on the ‘hollowing out’ of pay distribution, the latest research from the Resolution Foundation has shown.

Key findings

• Between 1997 and 2016, the share of male employees earning at or around the typical male weekly wage fell by approximately 15 per cent.
• There has been a large increase in the number of male employees working part-time, which has risen from 8.1 per cent in 1997 to 11.7 per cent in 2017.
• The average number of hours worked by full-time men earning around two-thirds of male median hourly earnings fell from 44.3 hours in 1997 to 42.2 hours in 2016. At the same time hours worked increased for higher paid men.
• Among part-time employees in the bottom fifth of the male weekly earnings distribution, 27 per cent would like full-time work compared to eight per cent of those in the top fifth.

The research finds that a greater focus on the hours people are working is welcome, given that weekly pay directly feeds into people’s living standards, and increasingly the UK labour market is marked by atypical forms of employment often characterised by non-standard working hours.