Remote’s analysis reveals that the industry offering its employees the best life–work balance is the financial and insurance activities sector. Compared with the other sectors analysed, this industry has the highest average salary with £62,244 and the best annual incentive pay with £11,843. 

Employees working in financial and insurance activities also have the highest basic weekly pay rate at £985.20, working just under 34 hours each week to earn this.

Offering financial and insurance professionals such an excellent life-work balance could be why this sector has the lowest employee turnover rate of every industry Remote looked at, with 25%.

Top industries for life-work balance

Paying an average salary of £47,556, the information and communication industry offers the second  best life–work balance, according to Remote’s analysis.

While basic pay rates are relatively high in this industry, overtime pay is fairly low at £5.20 an hour and the employee turnover rate is not as favourable as in the financial and insurance activities sector with 44%. 

The third best industry for a life–work balance is electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply.

The average annual salary for electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply is £45,541, around £2,000 less than the information and communication industry offers.

However, workers in this industry receive a much higher overtime pay rate at £41.50, and the financial and insurance activities industry and the information and communication industry offer just £5.90 and £5.20, respectively.

However, employee turnover in this sector is 67%, the highest out of the top five industries – the slightly higher 36.1-hour working week could be a contributor to this. 

Remote’s senior people specialist, Keah Nguyen advises employees to help their staff set clear boundaries between work and personal time. He says: ‘Remote encourages its employees not to have work apps on their phones and to master the art of working asynchronously.’

‘By switching to asynchronous workflows, team members can work at the hours that are best for them and not during hours they would rather be doing something else.’