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Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

bloomberg.com

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Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#181

Post by billmalarky »

friendlygrammar wrote: post #107
coldtea wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How happy are they working that extra 25%? They are richer, sure. But I don't think being rich is an indicator of your overall state. They aren't that richer either -- if anything the majority is less rich in standard of living than most western European and nordic countries. Getting some more money in your salary is not worth much if you have to give most of it to medical coverage and basic services.

GDP per capita in the US is more than 25% greater than Europe.

And how is that GDP distributed again?

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#182

Post by RandomName2020 »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #137
RandomName2020 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's harder to move from a class to another compared to the US. Not true: social mobility in US is lower than in Europe and Canada.

This is only because "social mobility" is in terms of percentiles, which doesn't account for differences in income variance between countries. The US has anomalously high income variance, so large changes in absolute income can equate to relatively small changes in the percentile. To put it another way, if everyone made the same wage, an increase in salary of $1 would check the box for "social mobility" because it wo…

Not sure about this kind of rationalization. Social mobility is a more sophisticated measure.

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#183

Post by acchow »

future1979 wrote: post #170
deanCommie wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agreed having lived and worked in all 3. Canada is the sweet spot.

I'm in the process of moving to Toronto from the US. Any tips on good tech companies to work for. :)

Head to New York or California.

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#184

Post by RandomName2020 »

refurb wrote: post #162
RandomName2020 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's harder to move from a class to another compared to the US. Not true: social mobility in US is lower than in Europe and Canada.

That might be true in the aggregate, but I imagine it's not for specific groups. Why else would so many people move to the US for job opportunities?

1. Because US is big. 2. Because it is more welcoming for immigrants. 3. Because of broken H1B system.

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#185

Post by abysmallyideal »

ajmurmann wrote: post #32

I find it astonishing how positive Bloomberg tries to spin this: People earn a wider range of incomes in the U.S., so “workers have an incentive to try harder to move up the job ladder because a promotion is worth more,” said Dora Gicheva -The income range in the US is so large that there are lots of people at the bottom end who have to work multiple jobs. How much does that have to do with the longer work hours, Blo…

All the "25% extra work" is doing is continue to widen the wealth gap. Their input into the economy is exploited by politicians, government, big business and banks. That is why Bloomberg, a well known shill piece for the 1%, is spinning it like a positive.

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#186

Post by patrickk »

jypepin wrote: post #96
ajmurmann wrote: post #32

I find it astonishing how positive Bloomberg tries to spin this: People earn a wider range of incomes in the U.S., so “workers have an incentive to try harder to move up the job ladder because a promotion is worth more,” said Dora Gicheva -The income range in the US is so large that there are lots of people at the bottom end who have to work multiple jobs. How much does that have to do with the longer work hours, Blo…

It's a very light analysis from me, so might not be fully true, but I live in the US, now in Europe, and in Canada before that. You could also say Canada is kind of in the middle. Well, maybe correlation doesn't imply causation in that case but here is what I can see: - US > Canada > Europe in terms of opportunities, be it starting salary, end-of-career salaries, and everything in the middle such as promotions, perso…

> When you call cust sup in Europe, the service is way worst.

This varies dramatically within Europe. From personal experience, customer service is decent, polite and timely in the UK and Ireland, and generally awful in Germany. It's difficult to generalise across a continent with 700mil+ people (500+ mil in the EU), with enormous cultural variations and expectations of good service (much greater variations than in the US).

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#187

Post by e12e »

friendlygrammar wrote: post #135
ryandrake wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which has what to do with standard of living?

Actually, standard of living is pretty heavily tied with gdp per capita, but I'm pretty sure we are talking about which country is richer not standard of living.

How so? If you take a "cake" of 100 units, let 99 people share 1, and give 1 to 1 person. Then most people have 1/99 units. If your cake is 85, and you give everyone an equal share, everyone has a 85/99 units. Now, the situation in Europe is probably more like having 2 people split 60 units out of 85 - but that still leaves "the rest" way a head of those that only get 1/99...

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#189

Post by sguav »

ythl wrote: post #174
sguav wrote: post #165

I struggle to digest this article. Considering I'm an Italian who has ever worked 40+ hours a week (non tech jobs got me to 60+ hours/wk...). And then, when I lived in England, everyone seemed to be doing at most 35 hrs/wk. I understand that these are statistics, but I can't really match it to my experience (but, hey, maybe this tells me to complain less and enjoy spare time more!)

Italians have the opposite problem - too much spare time (at least, all at once). When I lived in Italy I was astonished that the entire country could effectively shut down for an entire month (ferragosto). I mean, come on, at least stagger your vacations so that everyone doesn't take leave all at the same time...

True, in my company we can't afford to shut in August considered that 90% of our clients are outside Italy. But generally speaking it goes that way. Possibly paid holidays lower the average then. (BTW: ferragosto is just one day - Aug 15th)

Re: Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds

#190

Post by cmdrfred »

pc86 wrote: post #128
JBlue42 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And working more hours doesn't necessarily mean more income. I support an AEC firm and the 'architects' (quotes because most have not been licensed yet) typically work 10-12 hour days, sometimes weekends on a salary. Their take home income might be at a certain level but their effective hourly rate is reduced. Now, there is the argument out there that working those incredible hours can lead to more income since in Am…

Working more means more income only insofar as it's pretty hard to get promoted if you're working 40 hours and everyone else is working 80 even if you're better producer .

"Working", I'm in and out of offices all day. The amount of dead time spent in those places is insane. This is why I need to start my own business, sitting at a desk pretending to work helps no one and yet is the only way to get ahead.
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