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Average annual hours worked per country

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Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#11

Post by smueller1234 »

germinalphrase wrote: post #8
hectormalot wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also keep in mind that the numbers are not corrected for part-time vs full-time figures. e.g. my country (the Netherlands) is listed as 1439 hours vs Mexico 2257 hours annually per worker. You might come to the conclusion that people in Mexico work must longer than in the Netherlands. However, only 17% of people in Mexico work part-time, vs 37% in the Netherlands. Countries with low participation of part-time workers…

Would you attribute this higher rate of part time work to a strong social welfare system in the Netherlands or to some other factor?

Not a complete response to your question, but at least it is very common for families to to have both parents working part time (eg. four days each) and pay for childcare only for the remaining days. In countries where it's more common to have one full time salary in a family, the average working time per worker would be higher.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#12

Post by ewestern »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #5

Unsurprisingly, USA near the top with 1780 hrs worked annually by the average worker, contrast that with the most hours mexico (2257 hrs) and with the least hours Germany (1356) or the Scandanavians like Denmark and Norway (both around ~1400 hours). This is a poor look for the corporate-centric politics of the USA, which has extremely rich citizens and corporations yet which forces very long hours onto its laborers.…

>> Unsurprisingly, USA near the top with 1780 hrs worked annually by the average worker

According to the chart, US workers work < 1% more than the average for OECD countries. There are only two countries that are closer to the average. "Near the top" is not even a close description of this data. Given that your premise is false, how do the rest of your claims follow?

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#13

Post by germinalphrase »

smueller1234 wrote: post #11
germinalphrase wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you attribute this higher rate of part time work to a strong social welfare system in the Netherlands or to some other factor?

Not a complete response to your question, but at least it is very common for families to to have both parents working part time (eg. four days each) and pay for childcare only for the remaining days. In countries where it's more common to have one full time salary in a family, the average working time per worker would be higher.

inlove that that is a common arrangement for parents. Do businesses accommodate a reduction in hours to facilitate this?

We’re not very accommodating of parenthood here in the US. Medical costs aside, my employer only offers two weeks of paid parental leave after having a child.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#15

Post by hectormalot »

moate wrote: post #7
hectormalot wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also keep in mind that the numbers are not corrected for part-time vs full-time figures. e.g. my country (the Netherlands) is listed as 1439 hours vs Mexico 2257 hours annually per worker. You might come to the conclusion that people in Mexico work must longer than in the Netherlands. However, only 17% of people in Mexico work part-time, vs 37% in the Netherlands. Countries with low participation of part-time workers…

But why would you need to correct for that? If more of the labor force works part time, more of the labor force is working fewer hours. Are you assuming these part time workers are carrying multiple jobs which aren't being listed in sum (eg 20 Hours/week at Job A, 10 Hours/week at job B for 30 hours, instead of 15 if each job is separate?)

More likely that the part time force consists of families where both parents work eg 60-80%. This is at least quite common for friends around me.

Perhaps ‘correcting’ is the wrong word. But the title feels like: this is a ranked list which countries work hardest. I think the figure fails to capture that a family where both parents work 30 hours is not working less than a family where only one parent works 50 hours.

In my opinion, if that’s the comparison we want to make, it would be more fair to look at average hours worked per capita, or average hours worked per capita between ages 16-70, or something similar. That would capture both average hours and labor force participation.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#16

Post by aserafini »

hmexx wrote: post #14

Funny.. in Europe, Germans are considered hard-working and Greeks typically "lazy". According to these stats, the truth is completely the opposite!

I live and work in Germany but I am not German. I believe the work culture here is: if you are having to work outside core hours, you are ineffective and should have managed your workload better.

Consequently I believe there is greater focus on continuously doing the most important task during work rather than occupying oneself with 'busy work' that is prevalent in many other work cultures.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#17

Post by walshemj »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #5

Unsurprisingly, USA near the top with 1780 hrs worked annually by the average worker, contrast that with the most hours mexico (2257 hrs) and with the least hours Germany (1356) or the Scandanavians like Denmark and Norway (both around ~1400 hours). This is a poor look for the corporate-centric politics of the USA, which has extremely rich citizens and corporations yet which forces very long hours onto its laborers.…

The lack of statutory minimum annual leave will account for 120 hours or so just on its own.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#18

Post by tomatotomato37 »

There's only 38 countries on here, a large majority of which would be considered "Western." The only thing this is really useful for having first worlders lust after other first world countries with single digit percent differences in work hours

Also don't forget a standard 40 work week over a year is 2080 hours, significantly higher than the average.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#19

Post by ainiriand »

ewestern wrote: post #12
WhompingWindows wrote: post #5

Unsurprisingly, USA near the top with 1780 hrs worked annually by the average worker, contrast that with the most hours mexico (2257 hrs) and with the least hours Germany (1356) or the Scandanavians like Denmark and Norway (both around ~1400 hours). This is a poor look for the corporate-centric politics of the USA, which has extremely rich citizens and corporations yet which forces very long hours onto its laborers.…

>> Unsurprisingly, USA near the top with 1780 hrs worked annually by the average worker According to the chart, US workers work < 1% more than the average for OECD countries. There are only two countries that are closer to the average. "Near the top" is not even a close description of this data. Given that your premise is false, how do the rest of your claims follow?

That only shows that you should not give averages, but means. What we can extrapolate from this is that there is some very big factor pushing this up as it occurs with average household income.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#20

Post by hectormalot »

germinalphrase wrote: post #13
smueller1234 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a complete response to your question, but at least it is very common for families to to have both parents working part time (eg. four days each) and pay for childcare only for the remaining days. In countries where it's more common to have one full time salary in a family, the average working time per worker would be higher.

inlove that that is a common arrangement for parents. Do businesses accommodate a reduction in hours to facilitate this? We’re not very accommodating of parenthood here in the US. Medical costs aside, my employer only offers two weeks of paid parental leave after having a child.

In short: yes, many businesses facilitate this.

Ironically, Dutch paternity leave is only 2 days (paid), but you’re legally allowed to take something like 26 weeks unpaid in the first few years as parental leave. (Vs e.g. Sweden with 6-9 months). The law is changing to a few weeks next year I believe.

I think it differs by employer. Mine gives extra days paid leave for parents as they consider the 2 days too short (but this is uncommon) and proactively asked if I was considering 90% or 80% for the coming year, and shared how others have done this.

At my wife’s workplace there are many people with children, and the large majority works either 3 or 4 days per week.

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