Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/21174 
Year of Publication: 
2001
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 318
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Using panel data for West Germany and Great Britain, we show that there are striking differences in overtime work and overtime compensation in the two countries in the 1990s. Our estimates reveal that the observed overtime patterns affect both the evolution of the monthly labour earnings distribution and individual economic well-being differently in West Germany and Great Britain. Besides varying labour market institutions in the two countries a higher incidence of a combination of performance-related pay and unpaid overtime in Great Britain is an important factor in explaining the observed differences. With regards to West Germany, we show that the current policy of transforming paid overtime in ?working time accounts?, which is conducted in the spirit of ?work-sharing?, is neither beneficial for employed workers in terms of income mobility, nor in terms of overall job satisfaction nor in terms of working time preferences.
Subjects: 
Overtime
wage inequality
economic well-being
semi-parametric decomposition technique
panel data
JEL: 
J22
J33
J23
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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