Employees around the world have cheated employers to get more pay, and India, China and Australia are leading the pack, a survey has found.

According to the Kronos Time Clock Survey, 51% of Australian respondents said they had clocked in earlier or out later than scheduled, had someone else clock them in or out, neglected to clock out for lunch or breaks, added additionally time to timesheets, and other similar actions.

Around the world, 37% of those employees in the UK and 33% of those in the US admitted to duping their employers with regards to time.

Joyce Maroney, director of The Workforce Institute at Kronos, said “Organisations with employees around the world need to take a hard look at their time-keeping technologies and policies and make sure that they are using the latest methods, configuring their solutions appropriately, and setting correct policies to minimise this kind of fraud.”

The survey also found that among employed adults, time clock usage was the highest in Mexico, where 82% of employed adults said they currently use or have in the past used a time clock to clock in and out of work. The US was second at 77%, followed by China with 70%, India with 57%, Australia with 55%, and the UK with 48%.

Interestingly, when asked how they felt when they clocked in to work for the day, the most popular response across regions was “looking forward to starting a good day’s work”, and upon clocking out, “satisfied with a hard day's work”, was most commonly selected.