Working time


Working time or laboring time is the period of time that a person spends at paid labor. Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week.
Many countries regulate the work week by law, such as stipulating minimum daily rest periods, annual holidays, and a maximum number of working hours per week. Working time may vary from person to person, often depending on economic conditions, location, culture, lifestyle choice, and the profitability of the individual's livelihood. For example, someone who is supporting children and paying a large mortgage might need to work more hours to meet basic costs of living than someone of the same earning power with lower housing costs. In developed countries like the United Kingdom, some workers are part-time because they are unable to find full-time work, but many choose reduced work hours to care for children or other family; some choose it simply to increase leisure time.
Standard working hours refers to the legislation to limit the working hours per day, per week, per month or per year. The employer pays higher rates for overtime hours as required in the law. Standard working hours of countries worldwide are around 40 to 44 hours per week - but not everywhere: from 35 hours per week in France to up to 60 hours per week in nations such as Bhutan. Maximum working hours refers to the maximum working hours of an employee. The employee cannot work more than the level specified in the maximum working hours law.
In advanced economies, working time has declined substantially over time while labor productivity and real wages have increased. In 1900, American workers worked 50% more than their counterparts today. The World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization estimated that globally in 2016 one in ten workers were exposed to working 55 or more hours per week and 745,000 persons died as a result of having a heart disease event or a stroke attributable to having worked these long hours, making exposure to long working hours the occupational risk factor with the largest disease burden.

Hunter-gatherer

Since the 1960s, the consensus among anthropologists, historians, and sociologists has been that early hunter-gatherer societies enjoyed more leisure time than is permitted by capitalist and agrarian societies; for instance, one camp of !Kung Bushmen was estimated to work two-and-a-half days per week, at around 6 hours a day. Aggregated comparisons show that on average the working day was less than five hours.
Subsequent studies in the 1970s examined the Machiguenga of the Upper Amazon and the Kayapo of northern Brazil. These studies expanded the definition of work beyond purely hunting-gathering activities, but the overall average across the hunter-gatherer societies he studied was still below 4.86 hours, while the maximum was below 8 hours. Popular perception is still aligned with the old academic consensus that hunter-gatherers worked far in excess of modern humans' forty-hour week.

History

The Industrial Revolution made it possible for a larger segment of the population to work year-round, because this labor was not tied to the season and artificial lighting made it possible to work longer each day. Peasants and farm laborers moved from rural areas to work in urban factories, and working time during the year increased significantly. Before collective bargaining and worker protection laws, there was a financial incentive for a company to maximize the return on expensive machinery by having long hours. Work schedules as long as twelve to sixteen hours per day, six to seven days per week were practiced in some industrial sites.
Over the 20th century, work hours shortened by almost half, partly due to rising wages brought about by renewed economic growth and competition for skilled workers, with a supporting role from trade unions, collective bargaining, and progressive legislation. The workweek, in most of the industrialized world, dropped steadily, to about 40 hours after World War II. The limitation of working hours is also proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and European Social Charter. The decline continued at a faster pace in Europe: for example, France adopted a 35-hour workweek in 2000. In 1995, China adopted a 40-hour week, eliminating half-day work on Saturdays. Working hours in industrializing economies like South Korea, though still much higher than the leading industrial countries, are also declining steadily.
Technology has also continued to improve worker productivity, permitting standards of living to rise as hours decline. In developed economies, as the time needed to manufacture goods has declined, more working hours have become available to provide services, resulting in a shift of much of the workforce between sectors.
Economic growth in monetary terms tends to be concentrated in health care, education, government, criminal justice, corrections, and other activities rather than those that contribute directly to the production of material goods.
In the mid-2000s, the Netherlands was the first country in the industrialized world where the overall average working week dropped to less than 30 hours.

Gradual decrease

Most countries in the developed world have seen average hours worked decrease significantly. For example, in the U.S in the late 19th century it was estimated that the average work week was over 60 hours per week. Today the average hours worked in the U.S. is around 33, with the average man employed full-time for 8.4 hours per work day, and the average woman employed full-time for 7.9 hours per work day. The front runners for lowest average weekly work hours are the Netherlands with 27 hours, and France with 30 hours. In a 2011 report of 26 OECD countries, Germany had the lowest average working hours per week at 25.6 hours.
The New Economics Foundation has recommended moving to a 21-hour standard work week to address problems with unemployment, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, overworking, family care, and the general lack of free time. Bill Schaninger writing for McKinsey & Company has put forward a similar proposal of a 20-hour workweek. Others, such as the historian Rutger Bregman, have argued that a 15-hour work week is reachable by 2030 and British sociologist Peter Fleming has proposed a three-day work-week. Actual work week lengths have been falling in the developed world.
Factors that have contributed to lowering average work hours and increasing standard of living have been:
Recent articles supporting a four-day week have argued that reduced work hours would increase consumption and invigorate the economy. However, other articles state that consumption would decrease, which could reduce the environmental impact. Other arguments for the four-day week include improvements to workers' level of education and improvements to workers' health. Reduced hours also save money on day care costs and transportation, which in turn helps the environment with less carbon-related emissions. These benefits increase workforce productivity on a per-hour basis.

Workweek structure

The structure of the work week varies considerably for different professions and cultures. Among salaried workers in the western world, the work week often consists of Monday to Friday or Saturday with the weekend set aside as a time of personal work and leisure. Sunday is set aside in the western world because it is the Christian sabbath.
The traditional American business hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday, representing a workweek of five eight-hour days comprising 40 hours in total. These are the origin of the phrase 9-to-5, used to describe a conventional and possibly tedious job. Negatively used, it connotes a tedious or unremarkable occupation. The phrase also indicates that a person is an employee, usually in a large company, rather than an entrepreneur or self-employed. More neutrally, it connotes a job with stable hours and low career risk, but still a position of subordinate employment. The actual time at work often varies between hours in practice due to some employers counting breaks as part of the 40 hours and others not. In many traditional white collar positions, employees were required to be in the office during these hours to take orders from the bosses, hence the relationship between this phrase and subordination. Workplace hours have become more flexible, but the phrase is still commonly used even in situations where the term does not apply literally.

Average annual hours per worker

The following list is the average annual hours worked by participants in the labor force of the OECD member states. As of 2022, Colombia, Mexico, and Costa Rica ranked the highest number of hours worked per year. Greece ranked the highest In EU with 1886 average hours per year, while Germany ranked the lowest with 1340 average hours worked respectively. Japan and Canada ranked lowest amongst non-European countries.
CodeCountry19501960197019801990200020052010201520202022
AUSAustralia............1853185218081778175116831707
AUTAustria...............167516321552149514001443
BELBelgium......188317071663158915781574157514811525
BGRBulgaria...............164016591645164416051618
CANCanada......192518271797178717451715171216441686
CHLChile............2422226321572070199418251962
COLColombia........................2194...2405
CRICosta Rica............2358236223522243214819132149
HRVCroatia...............192219261942182718341810
CYPCyprus...............192618471845182416981837
CZECzechia...............190018031799175117051754
DNKDenmark......184515771441146614511422140713461371
ESTEstonia...............188419131785176316541770
EU27European Union...............167816521632160715131570
FINFinland...1967191817321671165016131585155515311498
FRAFrance23512188199318061645155815321540151914021511
DEUGermany...............146614321426140113321340
GRCGreece............1976199820251931193517281886
HUNHungary.........23482082193218341766174616601699
ISLIceland......195416881665169616371528151114351449
IRLIreland......233521232081193318831721177117461657
ISRIsrael............1904203319661957189517831891
ITAItaly...............185018111777171815591694
JPNJapan......224321212031182117751733171915981607
KORKorea, Republic of.....................2163208319081901
LVALatvia...............172816661692166315771553
LTULithuania...............163016591697167315951624
LUXLuxembourg...............160215501517151414271473
MLTMalta...............224621672136195518271881
MEXMexico...............217421052150214021242226
NLDNetherlands......180915561454146414341420142613991427
NZLNew Zealand............1809183618151755175317391748
NORNorway......183515801503145714061395139213691424
OECDOECD......196618931860182517931772176416871751
POLPoland...............186918551831186217661814
PRTPortugal......196318491806177017501746173216131635
ROURomania...............185318771841178617951808
RUSRussian Federation...............198219891976197818741874
SVKSlovakia...............181617691805175415721622
SVNSlovenia...............171016971680168715151619
ESPSpain.........19361763175317241706169415771643
SWESweden18241718156513821423148614531484146614241440
CHESwitzerland...............171316901611157714951528
TURTurkey......2086195718661937193618771811...1732
GBRUnited Kingdom......177516191618155815441507152513671531
USAUnited States19681952190718161833183217941772178317671810