Introduction Neck pain is a common work-related musculoskeletal outcome. To summarize its occurrence and risk factors may help to guide occupational interventions, minimizing the problem.

Objective To verify the prevalence and risk factors associated with occupational neck pain in employees.

Method This is a systematic review, with a search performed in two databases (PubMed/Medline and BIREME). Publications that estimated the prevalence of occupational neck pain and associated factors among employees were included in the review. Two independent reviewers searched, selected and evaluated all articles based on the PRISMA protocol.

Results 1830 articles were identified, and 48 which met the inclusion criteria were analyzed. Number of participants ranged from 15 to 134754 individuals among the studies; 28 studies (56%) were cross-sectional, and 23 (44%) were cohort studies; 74% came from Asia, Europe and Oceania, 8% from America, and 6% from Africa. Most studies analyzed musculoskeletal disorders in general, and neck pain was the second most prevalent complaint. The highest prevalence of neck pain was 71%, and the outcome was more frequent in women. The main risk factors described were ergonomic, psychological and social aspects.

Conclusions Neck pain is the second most prevalent musculoskeletal disorder in civil servants, particularly in office workers using computers. The most common associated individual risk factors were female gender, age, body mass index, and previous history of neck pain. Ergonomic risk factors were time and frequency of use of the mouse and keyboard, the position and height of the monitor, the temperature in the work environment, the posture adopted in the chair, as well as the simultaneous use of the telephone and computer.