Yahoo Finance 
Singapore workers feel they work up to 10 unpaid working hours a week: Survey
The number of working hours includes time spent working over lunch breaks and staying late after work.
SINGAPORE – As much as 40 per cent of Singapore workers believe that they work up to 10 hours unpaid time per week, the results of the ADP Research Institute's People at Work 2023: A Global Workforce View survey – released on Tuesday (11 July) – reveal.
The number of hours includes time spent working over lunch breaks and staying late after work.
The study conducted by ADP – a global provider of cloud-based human capital management solutions – surveyed 32,612 workers in 17 countries around the world between 28 October and 18 November 2022, including over 8,613 working exclusively in the gig economy. In Asia Pacific (APAC), which comprised Australia, China, India and Singapore, there were 7,721 respondents.
In APAC, when the number of overtime hours are averaged out, it is estimated that Singapore workers spend 8.19 hours unpaid per week. This is the second highest number of unpaid hours worked in the APAC region, after India (10.65 hours), but ahead of China (7.50 hours) and Australia (7.17 hours).
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Interestingly, the percentage of Singapore workers who feel they work up to 10 unpaid hours increases to over 50 per cent when it comes to parents with newborns.
"This could point to shifting priorities – parents may be more exacting about hours spent unpaid for their jobs if they have a newborn to care for," Yvonne Teo, Vice President of HR, APAC, ADP, said in a statement. "Research has consistently shown that unhealthy work life balances can lead to a drop in productivity, which is contrary to the assumption that working more hours means that an employee is more productive."
Underpaid for jobs
The survey also revealed that almost half of Singapore workers (45 per cent) feel that they are underpaid for their jobs.
Teo said the twin factors – "not being compensated fairly on top of working unpaid hours" – can lead to substantial employee dissatisfaction over time.
To alleviate overtime hours, she said, employers should ensure that all workers have access to tools that maximise efficiency and quality of the work they produce. It is also important to set clear, reasonable expectations to help employees plan their workload properly and ensure tasks are equally distributed across team members.
"Lastly, companies should consider using automation or outsourcing aspects of their work to external providers. For example, ADP has payroll and HCM software that helps companies to minimise time spent on admin tasks," Teo said.
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