Deputy’s United States of Shiftwork Index depicts the current state of shiftwork across the United States

SAN FRANCISCO (Oct. 8, 2019) — Deputy, the leading workforce management software solution, today released its first quarterly United States of Shiftwork Index, which depicts generational trends in US shiftwork. 

Deputy found that, on average, US shift workers are working 85.4 hours per month, and are scheduled for 86.2 hours. This potentially illustrates how well young labor compliance laws, such as Fair Workweek laws and predictive scheduling regulations, are working in a complex and tight American labor system.

Shift workers currently represent two-thirds of the working population globally and are employed across a broad range of industries in the US from hospitality to retail, tech, and healthcare. Federally enforced US labor compliance laws ensure companies can’t take advantage of paid hourly workers by ensuring overtime pay, shift breaks, shift length, and more.

For comparison, the American shift hours worked average (85.4), and is nearly 15 hours less than how much UK shift workers are on the job. UK workers average of 99 hours per month; and almost eight hours less than Australian shift workloads which, on average, clocked in at nearly 93 hours per month.

The shift workloads across all three regions are well below the full-time equivalent of 164 hours, indicating shift workers are on the job just over half as much as their full-time counterparts. 

The index analyzes 70.4 million shift hours scheduled and 69.4 million shift hours worked from over 660,000 American shift workers between June 2018 and July 2019. Further, it breaks down worker data by generation. Other key findings from the report include: 

• Baby Boomers’ role in the rise of shift work. Baby boomers are scheduled 87.6 hours per month on average, and end up working an average of 91.7 hours. In comparison:
  • Gen Z is scheduled only 73.7 hours on average per month, and works 67.6 hours on average per month
  • Millennials are scheduled at 93.2 hours on average per month, and work 93.6 hours on average per month
  • Generation X works the most hours, clocking in at 94.7 hours on average per month. Gen X is scheduled for 90.3 hours, on average
• The average shiftworker is a late-20s Millennial. The average US female shiftworker is 27, and the average male shiftworker is 28. 
• Summer is the quietest and busiest time for shift work (based on hours worked). The busiest month is June, and the quietest month is July. The quietest day for shift workers is Sunday, while the busiest is typically Wednesday. The most shifts are scheduled on Fridays. 
• Shift work starts and ends later than a nine-to-five. On average, shift workers clock on at 12 p.m., clock off at 10 p.m., and have an average shift length of 6.7 hours. 

“Labor compliance in America is incredibly complex, and it’s crucial for businesses that employ shift workers to ensure their employees are working the right number of hours, at the pay they deserve,” said CEO and cofounder at Deputy, Ashik Ahmed. “The introduction of Fair Workweek laws in combination with workforce management technologies, such as Deputy, means that labor compliance across all shift work industries is becoming vastly easier.”

Download the full United States of Shiftwork Index report to learn more or visit http://www.deputy.com.