RESEARCH PAPER NO. 866

NON-STANDARD WORK TIMING: EVIDENCE FROM  THE AUSTRALIAN TIME USE SURVEY

BY

DANIELLE VENN

JANUARY 2003

Department of Economics. University of Melbourne. Melbourne Victoria 3010 Australia

Non-standard work is relatively common in Australia, with 63 per cent of weekday workers aged between 20 and 59 years working sometime outside 8am to 6pm. However, only 15 per cent of all working-time takes place outside standard hours. Workers in a range of service and manual industries, such as hospitality, health, mining and manufacturing, have high rates of work at non-standard times. Working long hours or part-time increases the chance of working at non-standard times, and there is some evidence that workers without post-school qualifications, in low-skill occupations and from non-English speaking backgrounds are disproportionately more likely to work at non-standard times.