Half of British workers keen to cut hours for better work-life balance

Almost half of employees want to work fewer hours and millions would give up pay for a better work-life balance, according to a study published today.

Research for the Trades Union Congress (TUC) showed that workers in education and financial services were among those most keen to cut the hours of their working week.

Hotel and restaurant staff were least likely to want to work fewer hours for less pay, although the TUC said that reflected the large number of people who were employed part-time in the industry.

An analysis of the working habits of 60,000 households showed that manufacturing workers are also unhappy with the number of hours they worked.

The research was published ahead of Work Your Proper Hours Day on Friday. It has been calculated by the TUC that, if people put together all their unpaid hours from a year and theoretically ran those hours from 1 January, Friday would be the first day that they actually got "paid" for work.

The union has urged people to work their proper hours on Friday and take a full lunch break, and called on firms to thank staff for their hard work by treating them to lunch.

Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC, said: "Most people enjoy their jobs most of the time, but nearly half would like to work fewer hours.

"More than two million are so desperate to downshift they would give up pay in return for a better work-life balance. But all our long hours are not making us more productive. Too many workplaces are gripped by a long hours culture, which staff and managers could work together to tackle."