The average Australian is working 1.5 hours more of unpaid overtime each week compared with pre-pandemic numbers. 

A recent poll of 1600 workers by The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work has brought the upward trend to light.

Data indicates the average Australian now works 6.13 hours of unpaid overtime per week, compared with 4.62 hours in 2019.

Centre for Future Work economist Dan Nahum told Neil Breen the numbers are worrisome.

“We do have industrial laws in place that say you can’t employ workers and not pay them, but they’re not being enforced,” he said.

“With the trend towards working from home, what we’re seeing is people are shunting their working hours more and more to outside of normal hours.

“It’s just that much easier to just log on for an hour or two here or there at night.”

Press PLAY below to hear the full interview 

Image: Getty