Work Hour Preferences

Are you content with the number of hours you work? Working more hours than you’d like may leave you feeling stressed and overworked. Working fewer hours than you’d like may leave you feeling underemployed and financially insecure.

Working The Right Number of Hours: More Than One in Four Work Too Many or Too few Hours

Most employed Canadians (71 percent) say that they wouldn't’t change the number of hours they work each week – their work schedules match their personal preferences. However, about 20 percent of employees would prefer to work more hours than they currently do for more pay. In marked contrast, another 9 percent would prefer to work fewer hours for less pay. Combining these, we find that well over one-quarter of Canadians (29 percent) are not completely happy with their current work schedule. Perhaps most significant – especially in light of other indicators illustrating an increase long hours of work, the incidence of unpaid overtime, and other research documenting a deterioration in work-life balance over the decade – is that more than twice as many workers want more hours than want fewer hours. Some caution is needed though when interpreting this because this indicator combines hours and pay. It may well be that those expressing a desire for more hours are really in need of extra income. In other words, if their job was better paid they might not express an interest in working longer hours. In this sense, economic factors loom large in people’s preferences for work hours.

Evidence suggests that a preference for fewer hours is slightly more common in larger than smaller workplaces. Employees in large workplaces are more likely to work long hours, so perhaps not surprisingly there is a desire to work less.

By Region

There are only minor regional variations in the work hour preferences of employees. However, one difference worth noting is the larger share of employees in Ontario than in Quebec who would prefer to work more hours (22 versus 16 percent respectively). This is a bit of a puzzle since long work weeks (50 hours or more) are 50 percent more common in Ontario than in Quebec. So, we might have expected the opposite to be true – that workers in Ontario would want fewer, not more hours. It could be that the answer lies in the cost of living – you need more money to get by in Ontario than in Quebec. However, a definitive answer is beyond the scope of our current data.

Between 8 and 10 percent of Canadians would like to work fewer hours and are willing to forego wages to achieve this goal. Regional differences in this respect are very small, with those employed in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Atlantic region less inclined to work fewer hours for less pay.

By Industry

Working The Right Number of Hours: Almost One in Four Employees in Retail And Commercial Services Work Too Few Hours

Work hour preferences vary considerably across different sectors of the economy. Almost one in four workers in retail trade and commercial services would work additional hours if they had the chance. Many jobs in retail stores, bars and restaurants are part-time and wages tend to be low. This may contribute to workers’ preferences for more hours and pay. A desire for additional hours is also common in the information and cultural industries, and in education and health care. The strongest support for fewer work hours is found amongst workers in communications and utilities, finance and insurance, real estate, and education and health care. More than 11 percent of employees in these sectors would like to work less for less pay.

Working fewer hours than you’d like has serious implications. It means that your paycheque is smaller than need be, and that you’re less financially secure than you would be if you had more work. At the other end of the spectrum, working too many hours commonly has negative effects, including stress, job dissatisfaction and problems balancing work and family. So what is the best balance? It seems that both employees and employers want more flexibility around work hours. Whether it is working fewer or more hours, trade-offs are required. It would be helpful to know more about these trade-offs and what is involved when people make such decisions.

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