Money talks, but do workers listen? Working hour preferences in a Post-Covid world

Dixon, Chloe Nicole (2025) Money talks, but do workers listen? Working hour preferences in a Post-Covid world. British Sociological Association: Work, Employment and Society Conference 2025, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. 08 - 10 Sep 2025.

Abstract

Working-time reduction has been gaining traction in research and mainstream media. Existing research demonstrates that a purposeful move to reduce work hours can yield social, economic, wellbeing and environmental benefits, contributing to more ecologically and socially sustainable employment (Autonomy, 2023; Burchell et al., 2024; Coote and Franklin, 2013; Schor, 2005). Exploring work hour preferences, and the individual, societal and organisational factors that shape them, is a practical approach to assessing the feasibility of working-time reduction policies. Existing work in this area has established certain patterns, such as women, older people, people with health conditions, higher earners and long-hour workers being more likely to prefer reduced hours (Antal et al., 2024). There is considerable focus on the structural barriers that can be very influential on work hour preference patterns, such as having a low income, or the ‘part-time’ constraint that many women face (Fagan, 2001).
This study goes beyond the well-established structural barriers by exploring what influences the work hour preferences of more economically secure, full-time workers, within the context of a “post-Covid” world.
Labour Force Survey data were analysed using multinomial logistic regression analysis, to identify key demographic and work-related predictors of a preference for shorter hours and a willingness to accept reduced income among above-average earnings full-time workers in the years prior to (2018-19), and “post-” (2022-23) Covid-19. This work comes from a broader mixed methods project that explores work hour experiences alongside preferences. This includes interviews with employers and employees from case study companies that explore the benefits and challenges of different work week lengths, and how work and life context shapes preferences.
The quantitative findings contribute to the debates on the potential of working-time reduction by providing an updated overview of the factors influencing the work hour preferences of more financially secure, full-time UK workers. Consistent with the existing literature, older age, female gender, higher education, higher incomes, working longer hours, and health conditions, are found to correlate with a greater preference in working shorter hours (Antal et al., 2024), as well as a willingness to trade income for them. Lesser studied factors such as being white, British, a manager, a homeowner, or hourly paid, also emerged as predictors. Our findings also show a significant “post-” Covid decline in the preference for shorter hours and the willingness to accept income reductions, while remote working had no significant influence. Ongoing interviews are exploring these patterns, with emerging findings highlighting the role of structural and cultural barriers, including financial concerns and workplace culture, in shaping work hour preferences (Fagan, 2001). While this study aimed to examine the preferences of workers with fewer structural barriers, the quantitative and emerging qualitative findings indicate that such barriers remain influential even among this group.

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