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Wednesday 27 April 2016 1:33 pm

Bankers: Nearly everybody else is working harder than you

By: Jake Cordell

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Workers in the square mile probably feel like they have one of the hardest daily grinds in the country.

If you're one of them, you might agree, but a new survey from recruitment firm Reed suggests there will be little in the way of sympathy from friends and families in other professions.

In fact, most people across the UK have it worse, at least when it comes to being paid for the hours they actually put in.

Working nine-to-five, and then some

Across the country, two-thirds of us are working the equivalent of five weeks a year in unpaid overtime.

That comes in at a staggering £43bn in "lost" earnings every single year – or £2,300 per employee who is putting in a shift while officially off the clock.

But, City workers aren't contributing much to that. Those in banking and finance clocked up just 4.8 hours a week in unpaid work – 80 minutes fewer than teachers, engineers, sales and hospitality staff.

Square mile folk also came in below their Old Street and Soho colleagues – with IT and techie types clocking up an extra 5.6 hours a week and marketers staying at their desks for an extra hour every day.

Reed said the figures were "testament" to the British work ethic, which shows how people go "above and beyond in the name of getting the job done".

The three-quarters of staff who say they are "always on" because they have to check emails outside of office hours might disagree about how great that unpaid overtime is.

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