Americans Work 25% More Than Europeans, Study Finds (bloomberg.com)

Americans are addicted to their jobs. U.S. workers not only put in more hours than workers do almost anywhere else. They're also increasingly retiring later and taking fewer vacation days, reports Bloomberg. From the article: A new study tries to measure precisely how much more Americans work than Europeans do overall. The answer: The average person in Europe works 19 percent less than the average person in the U.S. That's about 258 fewer hours per year, or about an hour less each weekday. Another way to look at it: U.S. workers put in almost 25 percent more hours than Europeans. Hours worked vary a lot by country, according to the unpublished working paper by economists Alexander Bick of Arizona State University, Bettina Bruggemann of McMaster University in Ontario, and Nicola Fuchs-Schundeln of Goethe University Frankfurt. Swiss work habits are most similar to Americans', while Italians are the least likely to be at work, putting in 29 percent fewer hours per year than Americans do.

Comments

Misleading results

[dysmal]

Working more does not necessarily mean more productivity. It's especially hard to be productive when you're burning your limited PTO/vacation allotments for unplanned family illnesses rather than... you know... planned restful downtime.

working to offset expansion of the money supply

[roman_mir]

Americans have to work more hours and take fewer vacation days because they are poorer at this point, given that USA is running 500,000,000,000 a year trade deficit and has been running that for 2 decades now, Americans cannot afford anything, they are completely stuck in debt and their government in concert with the Federal reserve are destroying the value of their money, value of theirs savings every days. Government spending and money printing, pushing interest rates down to keep borrowing more by doing things like 'operation twist' (the Fed buying long term bonds at negative real interest rates because nobody else would), all of this is expanding the money supply making USD less valuable all the time, thus making Americans less productive every day.

The only way out of this insanity is to restructure the debts, an honest default on the USD denominated debt, stopping all government spending (yes, this means all wars, all SS payments, all Medicare payments, everything). You have to clear away all of your debts, allow the bond holders to lose money so that the interest rates would reset to normal levels (only real market without government intervention can set real interest rates). Get the government out of your money because otherwise you will never have vacations or retirement savings or anything.

Re:working to offset expansion of the money supply

[LynnwoodRooster]

It's not just the trade deficit, it's the spending we have to support as well. Even though the Federal Government took more than $10,000 per man, woman, and child (about $26,400 per worker - about $13.20 per hour worked in the US), it still spent $1,423,000,000,000 more than it took in (an additional $5.69 per hour worked). We have a LOT of Government to support - there are career politicians and crony capitalists to support after all!

Sources: number of workers, 124.73 million. Federal revenues: $3.3 trillion. Federal debt added FY2016: $1.423 trillion

Re:working to offset expansion of the money supply

[arth1]

#notallamericans

Some of us save our money, take on as little debt as possible, and laugh at the Joneses.

Unfortunately, that doesn't help when the government you have chosen is so deep in debt on your behalf.

Each US taxpayer currently owes around $165,000 in national debt, plus $870,000 in liabilities. Add state debt, at $5,000-$25,000 per taxpayer, depending on the state.

Relevance?

[kamakazi]

Buried in all the statisics abuse in the summaries there is a paper of significance only to historians. This paper is based on numbers for 2005-2007, before the financial crisis.

It also does not reflect work per person, but work for a theoretical average person age 15-64. Employment rate is a component of this person, so as employment rate drops so does the hours this average person works.

Actually, that feels intuitively wrong, the ~25 hours per week in the US seems way too high when employment rate is factored in, but I am not interested enough in how much we all worked 10 years ago to read the paper more carefully.

Besides, I don't have time for this, I have to get back to work.

Re:What have they got to show for it?

[plopez]

"European Lifestyle" also means single payer medicine, 4 or more weeks vacation, and an efficient mass transit system.

Re:Capitalism of exploration

[luis_a_espinal]

True. It also doesn't take into account the quality of work done. It might just mean Europeans are 25% more efficient.

European countries and cultures are just too variable to make that assumption. Norway is not the same as Germany which is not the same as France which is not the same as Italy which is not the same as Greece which is not the same as Romania and so on and so on.

Re:the real reasons for this

[houghi]

European here:
1: 35-40 IS a work week. And if you work half time, you are still insured for that period. For the company having somebody work full time or two people half time will cost about the same. Part time might even cost more. The reason to get part time people is
a) Because people want to. e.g. moms who want to work part time and still have time for the kids
b) You have hours that need it.
There will be people who are willing work 4/5th (4 day week) or 9/10th (e.g. every wednesday afternoon off) or other situations were they decide to work less in agreement with the employer

2. If by schedules you mean fixed hour weeks, then yes. Working overtime in Belgium is just not worth it. The taxes on your over time are about 85% or more. So you would be stupid to do it. So how do they deal with situations where overtime can not be avoided? You get paid in extra days off. e.g. working 1 (unplanned) Saturday will get you 1.5 or 2 days off. Sunday will be 2-3, depending on where you work. As a company you will learn very fast that most unforseen days are not really unforseen. It is just bad planning. And the situations will suddenly happen less.
And yes, there wwhere situations where I did a lot of extra work one month and had 2 weeks vacation extra.

3. It is about living wages. Where I work and in many other places, public transport is not only an option, it is paid for by the company. Imagine if you would not need to pay for your car. No taxes, no payment, no maintenance, no fuel. Look at it financially, not practically, because that is not possible. For me that was 200-300EUR difference per month, easy. If you are at the low end of earning, that will be a HUGE difference. So all of a sudden, I make 200EUR more per month.

4.. Credit is obviously available in Belgium and other countries as well. And some people fall into that trap. However top get a credit (in Belgium) the credit company will be forced to look how much other credits you have, how much you make and how much you need to live. Give credit to somebody who should not get a credit and he does not even need to pay it back. Not ever. Not when he starts making money. Just no pay back at all. Complete write off for the credit company. So how does this work?
a) You need a minimal income to get a credit. Below 1100EUR per month netto and no credit.
b) Deduct from you income a standard for living. e.g. food, rent and such. Not sure what the amounts are, but say 750. That leaves 250 per month. Now look at every other credit. Not: a credit (card) is calculated as if iut where maxed out, because that is what you would have to pay back in the worst case scenario. So a CC for 2000EUR would be 100EUR as there is a minimal payback of 5% per month. That leaves you 150EUR to buy a car.
So many people will say: If I ditch the card, I can buy a bigger car. Many will even have to ditch their cards to be able to buy a house.
So you do not build credit, you get it when you work and things are not added, but deducted.
Interest rates are fixed by law. Charge more and they will close you down without blinking and good luck trying to get your money back.