IDS HR Study 854, September 2007

Hours and holidays 2007

• Sets out the basic working hours and holiday entitlement of manual and white-collar employees

• Gives averages for both hours and holidays across 18 industry sectors

• Includes entries for 437 named organisations and industry agreements from the IDS hours and holidays database

More employers boosted holiday entitlement than cut basic working hours over the past twelve months, although this year witnessed minimal change overall. Basic holiday entitlement for both manual and white-collar staff is typically 25 days a year. However, service-related holidays enhance the leave of employees at more than half of the organisations in the IDS database.

There remains a significant gap in the length of the basic working week of manual and white-collar employees: almost half of manuals work at least 39 hours a week, while nearly two-thirds of non-manual staff work 37 hours or less. The average full-time standard working week across all employee groups in the IDS database is 37.3 hours.

Hours and holidays vary widely between industrial sectors. Average basic working hours range from 35.2 in finance to 39.7 in mining & quarrying, while annual leave ranges from an average of 21.5 in the hotels & leisure sector to 26.6 in energy & water.

The 2007 edition of this annual IDS HR Study details the standard working hours and basic holiday entitlements of 900 employee groups in 437 organisations. It also reports on the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2007, which increased statutory leave entitlement to 24 days from 1 October 2007 – with a further increase due in April 2009.