Impact of Working Hours on Work-Life Balance

33 Pages Posted: 25 Aug 2012

See all articles by Sarah Holly

Sarah Holly

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Alwine Mohnen

TUM School of Management; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: August 1, 2012

Abstract

To examine the influence of working hours on employees’ satisfaction, this article uses a large, representative set of panel data from German households (GSOEP). The results show that high working hours and overtime in general do not lead to decreased satisfaction. Rather, increasing working hours and overtime have positive effects on life and job satisfaction, whereas the desire to reduce working hours has a negative impact on satisfaction. In 2009, nearly 60% of employees wanted to reduce their working hours. The overall number of hours by which employees want to reduce their working time is driven mainly by overtime compensation.

Keywords: satisfaction, overtime, work-life balance, working hours, working time arrangements

JEL Classification: J22, J28, J81, M12

Suggested Citation

Holly, Sarah and Mohnen, Alwine, Impact of Working Hours on Work-Life Balance (August 1, 2012). SOEPpaper No. 465, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2135453 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2135453

Sarah Holly (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

Alwine Mohnen

TUM School of Management ( email )

Arcisstrasse 21
Munich, DE 80333
Germany

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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