More Overtime Means More Money, And More Problems
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Here's your Money Briefing for Wednesday, September 22nd. I'm J.R.
How are employers responding to widespread job openings by using overtime?
Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. The record number of job openings in the U.S., coupled with not enough people sending in resumes, has put employers in a bind. Many have turned to paying their staff overtime to come in early, stay late, and pick up extra shifts. But that can cause problems of its own.
Employers are relying on the existing workers, and then the more they rely on those existing workers, the more likely it is that those people will start feeling burnt out, will be exhausted.
Coming up, WSJ Workplace reporter Lauren Weber will tell us about the problems that extreme overtime can cause for employers and workers. That's after the break.
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We've told you before about how companies are trying to keep productivity up as they struggle to find more workers. Often that means asking the employees they do have to log overtime hours. For workers, that can mean a nice boost in pay, but in other ways, it's making the situation worse. Let's bring in WSJ reporter Lauren Weber to find out why. She's been talking to both employers and workers trying to navigate the current staffing crunch. Hi, Lauren. Thanks for coming on the show.
Thank you for having me.
So, Lauren, can you describe the situation for us and what it looks like as businesses try to fill in those gaps in staffing?
What industries are experiencing the heaviest overtime and staffing shortages?
Many of them are trying as hard as they can to recruit people. They're offering incentives in order to hire more people. But really, in the end, when you don't have the bodies available to fill out your staff schedule, what you end up doing is relying more on the people you do have. And so I talk to people who normally are supposed to be working a 40-hour week who are instead working 72 hours, 60 hours. Typically, you know, week after week working 60 hours. So I spoke to people in construction, in restaurants, healthcare is having a really hard time. Many people have probably heard about the fact that there's not enough nurses right now to staff hospitals and clinics. And that's partly because demand for services is so high with so many people dying.
becoming infected with COVID right now. So it's really across the board. But I think industries like healthcare are probably some of the ones we need to be paying closest attention to, because there you get into a situation where if you don't have enough staff, you simply can't provide care.
Okay, so how widespread is this issue of employees being asked to work overtime?
It's difficult to say in an official sense because the government only tracks overtime hours for manufacturing employees. So we don't have a broad measure of how many people are working overtime or how many hours, but we do know anecdotally and from what I'm hearing from employers and managers that workers are being asked to work a lot of extra time to make up for the fact that employers can't hire enough people to staff their open positions.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:39
2
How are employers responding to widespread job openings by using overtime?
0:39–2:26
3
What industries are experiencing the heaviest overtime and staffing shortages?
2:26–4:54
4
How common is overtime work and what data tracks it?
4:54–7:35
5
Who is legally entitled to overtime pay and how do rules vary?
7:35–10:29
6
Why does extreme overtime contribute to burnout and resignations?
10:29–12:19
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from WSJ Your Money Briefing
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