For many employees, working a bit longer than your contracted hours is pretty normal and most of us will think, 'what’s the odd half an hour here and there?'

But research shows, on average, UK workers ' overtime equates to around 68 working days every year and for most of us that is unpaid, reports the Bristol Post.

Meaning that, from this week for the rest of the year, you’re effectively working FOR FREE.

According to the Totallymoney.com and OnePoll research , workers in the North West put in an extra 7.7 hours per week – with 63.7 per cent not paid for overtime work.

While 43 per cent of men said they were paid for their overtime, only 30 per cent of women claimed they are financially compensated for their extra working hours.

Nearly a quarter of women (24 per cent) feel pressured to work overtime in order to progress their career whereas only 11 per cent of men feel the same way.

This is how much money are you losing out on

The average UK annual salary is £27,000 and people work 35 hours a week on average.

With this in mind, if you arrived 20 minutes early, worked half an hour over lunch, and left 20 minutes after your official finish time, you’d be working an extra 283.3 hours extra each year.

That’s £4,500 you’re losing out on. Or, put another way, the amount you'd be expected to earn, on average, from now until the end of the year.

Unsurprisingly, 60 per cent of British workers say they don’t have a good work-life balance and only a third of workers leave work on time.