Young women top unpaid work list

Women without children are most likely to do unpaid overtime, says a report by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), reported The BBC.

They are more likely to work extra hours than mothers, fathers and men without children, according to the union organisation.

However, it is men with children who put in the highest number of unpaid hours - 8.3 hours per week on average.

The TUC says five million workers in the UK do unpaid overtime, saving employers almost £25bn in 2007.

The report indicates that 24.2% of all women without children do unpaid overtime.

But this declines to 17% amongst women with children.

The Fawcett Society, which campaigns for equal pay and conditions, said women were being presented with "impossible choices".

"They are forced to choose between caring for a family at home or maximising their career opportunities in a workplace that measures performance by the number of hours put in," the society's Kat Banyard said.

The TUC's general secretary, Brendan Barber, said this was preventing women getting the top jobs in their profession.

"It is hardly surprising that the senior levels of most organisations are male and that the gender pay gap stubbornly persists," he said.