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Average annual hours worked per country

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Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#51

Post by RobertoG »

kjeetgill wrote: post #46
RobertoG wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why is necessary to explain anything. Maybe the explanation is that the Germans work less hours. It would be logic, a richer country, a better life. Is that shameful or something?

I think the desire to explain something comes from the data not lining up with expectations. You either want to explain why the data lacks details and reality DOES line up with intuition OR why the intuition was wrong or prejudicial. I get it, stereotypes can suck and make bad null hypotheses but thats how these things go.

I get it, but there are two ways to solve it.

You can accept the data and change your theory or you can ignore the data and keep your theory.

The more simple theory here is, obviously, that the Greeks work more.

It bothers me that many people in a community of theoretically science orientated people, as HN, choose the more complicated explanation by default.

"thats how these things go" is a really low standard, by the way.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#52

Post by acd »

Working less hours is better. Then you can spend more time with people that matter family and friends.

There is no point in working much just for the sake of it.

Also working hours vs gdp should show that you can work less hours and still have a high gdp.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#53

Post by schnevets »

stevesimmons wrote: post #48
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?

Here are some "anecdata" from my 6 years working in the Netherlands: * 4 day weeks are very common: I worked for a Dutch Bank for 3 years. Virtually all the Dutch "full time" staff worked 4 day weeks. The deal was work 10% less (36 instead of 40 hours), extend the working day a notional one hour on Monday to Thursday, and take every Friday off. Not bad for a 10% reduction in salary. And since everyone does it - even…

The ZZP idea is particularly intriguing to me. Do you think this is a direct result of the strong social net, or a sense of independence that existed in Dutch culture before benefits?

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#54

Post by asdsa5325 »

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 is near the top since it's more common for hours to be accurately reported.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#55

Post by microcolonel »

betadreamer wrote: post #2

Keep in mind that this is showing the "reported" hours, which can be misleading. For example it shows that people in US works more than Japan but I know for a fact that people in Japan works A LOT more. However, since it is a cultural thing and they expect you to work long hours, no one reports overtime. I even heard that you can get fired if you report it.

There is a lot more part time work in Japan, and this skews elderly; not sure but that would seem like one way the data could be more accurate than you think.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#56

Post by defertoreptar »

forapurpose wrote: post #50
defertoreptar wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yet another example of the surprisingly poor living quality in the USA in aggregate terms relative to GDP. If your friend grows up in a rich neighborhood and all of his friends drive BMWs, and he's upset because he's driving a brand new Accord, would you feel bad for him? Probably not, but this is how people criticize the USA's relative poverty and income inequality. If you disregard absolute terms and only look th…

> If your friend grows up in a rich neighborhood and all of his friends drive BMWs, and he's upset because he's driving a brand new Accord, would you feel bad for him? Probably not, but this is how people criticize the USA's relative poverty and income inequality. The US has higher income per capita than almost any country in the world, yet living standards are relatively low for a wealthy country. For example, many…

> yet living standards are relatively low for a wealthy country.

> Most wealthy countries look superior to the US

And yet more people choose to immigrate there than anywhere else in the world: https://businessinsider.com/top-15-countries-migrants-2017-1...

> Who says that this has a negative impact?

Cultural conflict theorists. Undeniably it's a good thing, I agree, but there is an argument for how linguistic/ethnic/religious heterogeneity can create economic friction.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#57

Post by spraak »

acd wrote: post #52

Working less hours is better. Then you can spend more time with people that matter family and friends. There is no point in working much just for the sake of it. Also working hours vs gdp should show that you can work less hours and still have a high gdp.

Yes. Productivity (y axis) over hours worked (x axis) is logarithmic in my mind, at least for SWE: I don't see much difference in working 8 vs 12 hours in a day

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#59

Post by Mirioron »

acd wrote: post #52

Working less hours is better. Then you can spend more time with people that matter family and friends. There is no point in working much just for the sake of it. Also working hours vs gdp should show that you can work less hours and still have a high gdp.

If you look at the list you'll find that many countries near the top are countries that aren't the richest yet, but are making enormous gains economically. It's likely that the richer countries already went through such a phase in the past.

Re: Average annual hours worked per country

#60

Post by fffernan »

betadreamer wrote: post #2

Keep in mind that this is showing the "reported" hours, which can be misleading. For example it shows that people in US works more than Japan but I know for a fact that people in Japan works A LOT more. However, since it is a cultural thing and they expect you to work long hours, no one reports overtime. I even heard that you can get fired if you report it.

You would also have to factor the amount of time spent socializing at work versus actually doing work. In Japan most of your friends are at work, and relationships are in work. Lots of coffee breaks, chatting about non work related matters,etc,etc. 8 hours spent at the office in US is much more work being done than 12 hours of busy Asian country. That being said there certainly was a good amount of people actually working themselves to death for 15hours day actually working while their bosses did not much work. Source: Worked at a Japanese company for almost a decade.
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