Work and Leisure

UK evidenceThe economics of work and leisure 87The main statistical indicators of time allocation comprise:• time spent in paid work, e.g. hours worked, overtime, labour forceactivity rates• time allocated for leisure, e.g. holiday entitlement• the identity of times worked, e.g. shiftwork, flexitime.In addition to indicators of actual time allocations, there is also increasingevidence of what time allocations individuals would prefer and the extent towhich these preferences differ from actual time allocations. This evidencesuggests that actual time allocations may not be just the outcome ofindividual choices, in contrast to the neoclassical theory outlined earlier.Two qualifying observations should be made about the indicators used torepresent work and leisure time allocations. First, leisure time is rarely measureddirectly. Leisure time is more typically assumed to be the residual in anygiven time period after paid work time has been measured. Even holidayentitlement is a paid-work-related measure of time allowance, rather than anaccurate measure of leisure time allocation. Second, the assumption that timenot in paid work is leisure time ignores obligated time. There are also ‘greyareas’ in the use of time which are partly obligated and partly leisure, such aseating, shopping, travelling and DIY. At the simplest level of analysis theseobligated or partly obligated time allocations may be assumed to be constant,but this may not be correct.HoursIn the long term, the basic working week (excluding overtime) in the UK hasbeen falling. From an average of over 44 hours a week in 1950, it fell to around40 in the late 1960s (Gratton and Taylor 1985). Thereafter it declined at amuch slower rate. One estimate for 2000 is of a basic working week of 37 or37½ hours for manual workers and 35–37 hours a week for non-manual workers(Incomes Data Services (IDS) 2000). A different picture emerges, however,when overtime is taken into account. The actual amount of hours worked perweek for full-time employees, including paid overtime, declined to a low pointof 41.7 hours a week for men in 1984 and 37.1 hours a week for women in1982. Thereafter, hours of work have risen slightly, peaking at 42.3 hours aweek for men in 1989 and 37.6 hours a week for women in 1988–9 and 1994–8.Figure 5.1 shows the trends from 1976 to 2000 for four groups of full-timeemployees – male and female, manual and non-manual. Generally nonmanualemployees work lower paid hours than manual workers, although aswe shall see later this does not take account of unpaid overtime. Male manualworkers work about five hours a week more than the next group, femalemanual workers. The trends for the four groups show falling actual weekly