Work-life balance? Americans work many longer hours than Europe

American workers spend more time working than employees in other developed countries, and the sum adds up: U.S. workers typically put in 400 more hours of work each year than our counterparts in Germany.

A new report from the International Labor Organization (ILO), which is a United Nations agency, finds that the average number of hours worked per year was higher in the United States than in six developed countries used in the study comparison: Australia, United Kingdom, Sweden, Belgium, France and Germany.

For much of the 21st century, Australians worked more than Americans, but that changed several years ago. Of these countries, Germans work the least, totaling about 1,350 hours a year, on average.

In the United States, workers work an average of about 1,750 hours a year, the ILO report shows. That figure has declined over time: In the 1950s and 1960s, the average hours worked per year in the United States were closer to 2,000, according to the report. Even so, the average 40-hour week employee in the United States works 400 more hours a year — the equivalent of 10 more weeks — than employees in Germany.

However, the study shows that employees in several large countries that the United Nations classifies as developing, including China, India, the Republic of Korea, work more than Americans. In China and India, average working hours are more than 2,100 per year and these numbers have increased over the past fifty years, which is not the case in any of the other countries in the study.

Overall, the work-life balance is the best in Europe and North America. “Average working hours per week were clearly the longest in Asia and the Pacific, particularly in South and East Asia,” the report said. “In contrast, the shortest average weekly working hours are found in North America, Europe and Central Asia, particularly Northern, Southern and Western Europe. The other regions of the world are somewhere between these two extremes.”

The comparison includes only four developing countries, lastly Brazil, where employees work less than in America. It’s also important to note that the report may not exactly reflect the current situation because the study uses pre-pandemic data.

Too many employees are overworked, says the UN agency

Globally, the ILO report argues that too many people are working excessively long hours, even as average working hours in many developed countries are on the decline.

More than a third of all workers work at least 48 hours a week, according to the report. “Regular long hours of work remain a serious concern in most parts of the world today,” the report said.

“Overemployed” workers often struggle with work-life balance, and “overemployment” is associated with more health problems, alcoholism, family conflicts, etc., according to the ILO.

In developing countries, workers are putting in these long hours because wages are low and they are trying to make ends meet, the report said.

While this is certainly the case for many workers regardless of location, the report says that in developing countries many employees have to work these hours because their jobs require them to take as long as necessary to complete the tasks in front of them. . Many overemployed workers say they would rather work less, even if it means earning less income.

The report identifies underemployment as another major problem. Underemployment exposes people to greater risks of living in poverty, without benefits and with irregular hours.

A fifth of workers globally work fewer than 35 hours a week and a third of these workers are paid for less than 20 hours a week. Often these workers want more hours but struggle to find opportunities, according to the ILO.

Preliminary data looking at jobs during the pandemic show there was a small increase in the number of underemployed people in 2020, although levels have fluctuated as economies reopen or restrictions are lifted. Similarly, the number of people working more than 48 hours a week fell at the start of the pandemic, but then picked up again as the world recovered.

While the pandemic has resulted in an increase in remote working, giving workers more flexibility, it has not caused a significant change in the length of the average workweek, according to the report.

“The decrease in long hours was not as dramatic as one might expect given the situation, perhaps in part because some products were in high demand,” the report said.

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