All in good time: companies have become less likely to offer staff to work overtime
For the first time in five years, the number of overtime vacancies has decreased. In the first half of 2025, almost 100,000 offers with refineries were opened in Russia, which is 10% less than last year, Izvestia found out. Prior to this, the indicator had been increasing for several years in a row. In 2025, overtime jobs include the food industry, industrial equipment manufacturing, construction, and instrument engineering. To what extent the trend with a decrease in overwork is long—term and what it is related to is in the Izvestia article.
Overtime in 2025
In the first half of 2025, almost 100,000 vacancies were opened in Russia offering overtime and overworking, the study says. hh.ru conducted specifically for Izvestia. For comparison, a year earlier there were 10% more such options — 110 thousand. Prior to that, the number of such offers had been constantly increasing for at least five years. However, the trend has now reversed.
The All-Russian Research Institute of Labor confirmed the trend to Izvestia. They reported that the number of those who worked more than 41 hours a week (with a norm of 40) in the first quarter of 2025, compared with the same period in 2024, fell by 525 thousand, those who worked 41-50 hours a week — by 433,000, and more than 51 hours — by 92 thousand . At the same time, a decrease in the number of overtime workers in the first three months of this year was also observed compared to the end of 2024.
This happened due to the fact that now companies can no longer raise the salaries of their employees — they simply do not have the extra money to pay for recycling. In order to remain attractive to staff in such conditions, enterprises adapt their working conditions — they offer a hybrid or remote work format, flexible hours, experts say.
In 2025, the vacancies offering such employment were mainly from the retail, industrial, real estate and instrument industries, the study says. hh.ru . In addition, drivers and handymen were most often offered to work beyond the norm. According to SuperJob, teachers and doctors have the most overwork.
In most cases, overtime is not officially recorded — its real level is very difficult to measure, said Ekaterina Movsesyan, CEO of CROS. However, there are areas in which recycling has become commonplace, such as marketing, law, and work in the creative industries. At the same time, for startups and consulting, over-employment is often perceived as an investment in growth.
In general, the demand for recycling is related, among other things, to the shortage of personnel in Russia. So, according to the results of the second quarter of this year, companies often lacked handymen, locksmiths, engineers and drivers, said the Deputy General Director of "Work.<url>" and Alexander Veterkov, Chief Operating Officer of the Podrabotka and SberPodbor services. He added: there are also not enough sales managers and builders.
In conditions of shortage, employers are looking for ways to solve the problem, said Vladimir Korovkin, head of the Laboratory of International Economic Research at the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo. In this case, employees have the opportunity to increase their income — for example, two hours of overtime per day gives a noticeable increase in salary, he added.
How common is recycling
As Izvestia wrote earlier, the length of the working day in Russia has decreased for the first time since 2022. In the first quarter of 2025, it was 7.54 hours (7 hours and 32 minutes), a decrease of 0.1%, or four minutes. Although slightly, it decreased for the first time in the last three years.
Employers often do not write in vacancies about possible overtime employment, although in practice employees face this regularly. According to the data hh.ru In 2024, about a third of Russians surveyed admitted that they recycle almost every day. Also, about a quarter of workers do this two or three times a week.
At the same time, almost half of Russians cited seasonality and heavy workload among the reasons. Also, according to the survey, this is due to the absence of colleagues due to vacation or illness.
As SuperJob told Izvestia, every second full-time employee works extra. On average, recycling increases their working hours by a quarter of the norm.
Alexander Prikhach, a professor at the Presidential Academy in St. Petersburg, believes that the trend when companies have reduced the number of vacancies with recycling is temporary. According to him, unattractive vacancies can simply be removed: firms are not always ready to pay a lot, and candidates are not willing to earn enough.
How much do they pay for recycling
By law, working hours should not exceed 40 hours per week — as a rule, these are five working days of eight hours each. At the same time, shorter days are provided for some categories, for example, for the disabled, minors, and workers in hazardous industries. In addition, there are people who work part—time or, conversely, in longer shifts of nine or 12 hours on a schedule of "two in two" or "week in a week."
At the same time, overtime is allowed, but subject to certain rules. For example, no more than four hours of such work for two consecutive days, or a maximum of 120 hours of overtime per year.
Such hours are paid at the rate of 1.5% of the tariff rate or salary for the first two hours of work and double the amount for subsequent hours. Starting from September 1, 2024, the conditions were adjusted - now compensation and incentive payments are included in the salary, that is, overtime work will have to be encouraged more actively, said Lyudmila Ivanova—Shvets, associate professor of the basic Department of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry "Human Resource Management" at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. It is also necessary to take into account the bonuses for qualifications, complexity and special conditions of employment.
At the same time, an employer may occasionally involve an employee in additional employment, and this should be reflected in the employment contract, the expert added. That is, there will be a non-fixed work schedule, but for this the worker is entitled to at least three days of vacation.
At the same time, people often overwork the 120 hours prescribed by law, and organizations do not pay for hours above this limit. In this regard, the regulations may be revised.
A bill is currently being drafted proposing to increase the allowable annual amount of overtime from 120 to 240 hours. According to Andrey Glushkin, managing partner of Main Division, such a bill should legalize recycling in cases where peak load occurs during limited periods.
For workers focused on processing, this will allow them to receive at least 25% more in salary, added Alexander Prikhach from the Presidential Academy in St. Petersburg.
What will happen to the labor market by the end of 2025
In the next few years, the labor market will remain in a labor shortage situation, but at the same time, the wage race will slow down, says Ekaterina Movsesian from CROS. This is due to the fact that companies in most industries have already exhausted the opportunities for salary growth without losing business profitability.
The main reason is the tight monetary policy of the Bank of Russia. After all, most enterprises cannot afford expensive loans to expand production, so they do not want to increase staff and pay. In addition, the increase in income tax from 2025 to 25% from 2025 played an important role. In this case, firms give more funds to the state, and they have less money left to attract higher-paid employees.
According to Ekaterina Movsesyan, in the future, competition for high—quality personnel will take place to a greater extent in the field of non-material motivation - at the expense of corporate culture and opportunities for self-realization.
As Izvestia wrote earlier, by the end of the year the average salary in the country will be about 100 thousand rubles, while its growth will slow down. Salaries will increase most actively in those industries that fulfill government orders, such as metallurgy, mechanical engineering and equipment manufacturing. And also in taxi, catering, construction, turning — that is, in those industries that have faced the most significant outflow of foreign labor.
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