43% of overtime in Spain is unpaid, according to the latest EPA. CCOO reports that the total number of extra hours has grown by 20% since 2023.
The Spanish labour market creates quality jobs, but precariousness persists in the form of unpaid overtime. This is reflected in the Active Population Survey (EPA) published this Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which places the proportion of unpaid extra hours at 43%.
Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) has highlighted this reality, which it considers a burden on labour rights. The union argues that not paying for these hours means that the worker neither receives payment nor contributes to social security, and cannot recover them as time off.
EPA data shows that the total number of weekly overtime hours has increased from 5.97 million in 2023 to 7.18 million in 2026, a 20% rise over three years. Since 2022, the growth is 8%.
The percentage of unpaid overtime has barely decreased since the labour reform of 2022: it was 48% then, and in 2026 it stands at 43%. In 2024 it was 42.8% and in 2025 it was 40.2%.
The number of workers doing unpaid overtime remains stable: in 2022 there were 397,400 people, 1.92% of the employed population; in 2026, the percentage is 1.84%.
CCOO points out that 64% of unpaid overtime is concentrated in six sectors: education (19%), hospitality (12%), manufacturing (9%), commerce (8%), professional activities (8%), and public administration (8%).
A report from CCOO's Economic Cabinet in February 2025 quantified the impact: each worker who performed unpaid overtime worked an average of 5.6 hours per week without pay, which represented a labour cost of 141 euros per week, equivalent to 7,355 euros annually in wages and contributions.
The union estimated that unpaid overtime resulted in savings for companies of 3.243 billion euros annually in gross salary and social contributions. Furthermore, this unpaid work time would equate to 160,000 full-time jobs, of which 62,000 would correspond to unpaid hours.
The time registration system, mandatory since 2019, is not functioning as intended. The Government is considering reforming it to make it digital and more accessible, but no new regulations have been established yet.
For workers in the province of Barcelona, where sectors such as hospitality and manufacturing are significant, these figures are particularly relevant. Employers and unions are negotiating improvements in collective agreements to ensure compliance with time registration and compensation for overtime.
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