Employees in Spain reported more than 166 million hours in paid overtime in 2018, the second highest figure in the last ten years, according to data from Randstad Spain.

The data showed 166.17 million overtime hours, an increase of 13.1% compared to 2017, when there were 146.95 million overtime paid hours. This was the highest figure since 2008 when paid overtime hours stood at 176.24 million.

Randstad’s historical data found that the volume of paid overtime hours decreased for five consecutive years after 2008, until registering the lowest figure in 2013 (100.88 million). Since 2013, the volume of overtime has not stopped increasing, growing 48% since that year, until reaching the second highest figure in 2018.

When broken down, Randstad found that, during 2018, employed Spaniards reported an average of 8.1 overtime hours, the second highest figure in the last ten years and 3.8% more than 2017.

Luis Pérez, Director of Institutional Relations of Randstad, commented, "The resource of overtime may be positive in times of high workload but it is not a good solution on a recurring basis."

Pérez added that “to adequately respond to these situations, there are solutions such as part-time or fixed-term contracts, which does not saturate employees with exhausting work hours and does not alter their reconciliation between work and personal life "