People walk the World Trade Center West Concourse, Brookfield Place, World Trade Center, New York City, Dec. 4, 2014.(Photo by Flickr user John St John via Creative Commons license)
No matter who you ask, it’s pretty clear that Americans work more than just about anyone else in moderately rich countries. Americans are also 400 percent more productive today than in 1950, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The percentage of full-time workers has dwindled in the United States since 2007, but the number of hours worked each week has held steady at about 47, according to Gallup.
U.S. residents worked about 1,789 hours in 2014, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. That’s about 100 hours more than many of our European counterparts like England, France and Germany.
In 2014, full-time U.S. workers reported logging an average of 47 hours per week. The traditional American work week is eight hours a day, five days a week for a total of 40 hours. Just 8 percent of full-time workers say they work less than 40 hours weekly.
Only 1-in-5 Americans actually takes a lunch break; most opt to eat at their desks. And 28 percent say they don’t take any kind of break at all. All of which means Americans are working longer, taking fewer vacations and retiring later.
Having a strong work ethic is a proud American tradition. American parents often try to instill it in their children by discussing the value of money and hard work. Many U.S. youngsters will show this early willingness to work by setting up lemonade stands in front of their houses or on the neighborhood street corner.
Enterprising young men with their lemonade stand. (Photo by Flickr users Max and Miles Hanley via Creative Commons license)
All of this work also leaves less time for play.
A recent report from two Stanford University researchers observed, “Leisure was higher in France…the average person in France works less than two-thirds as much as the average person in the U.S.”
WalletHub decided to break down the data in the 116 largest U.S. cities in order to identify where the hardest-working Americans live. The personal finance site found the hardest-working major American city is Anchorage, Alaska, where people work an average of 40.1 hours per week and workforce participation is almost 79 percent.
The other hard-working cities in the top five include Virginia Beach, Virginia (average hours worked: 40.1, workforce participation: 77.8%), Plano, Texas (average hours worked: 40.5, workforce participation: 78.1%), Sioux Falls, South Dakota (average hours worked: 38.9, workforce participation: 83.8%), and Irving, Texas (average hours worked: 40.1, workforce participation: 78.65%).
The lowest-ranked cities include Burlington, Vermont (average hours worked: 33.1, workforce participation: 70.67%), Detroit, Michigan (average hours worked: 36, workforce participation: 61.36%), Providence, Rhode Island (average hours worked: 35.6, workforce participation: 70.12%), San Bernardino, California (average hours worked: 36.4, workforce participation: 62.35%), and Buffalo, New York (average hours worked: 36.3, workforce participation: 67.45%).
The Hardest Working Cities in the U.S.
(Click on dots above to see individual ranks)
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The article notes that:
“No matter who you ask, it’s pretty clear that Americans work more than just about anyone else in moderately rich countries. Americans are also 400 percent more productive today than in 1950, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
The article goes on to state that:
“U.S. residents worked about 1,789 hours in 2014, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. That’s about 100 hours more than many of our European counterparts like England, France and Germany.”
Unfortunately what the article left out, for some unknown reason, is that while Americans are certainly working more hours than their counterparts in Europe their wages have remained basically flat since the late 1970s, and especially when Ronald Reagan was in office, while the pay of CEOs of large corporations has gone up about 300 %. This is also another indication why capitalism is an extremely flawed and pernicious ideology as its goal is to increase profits off the backs of its workers.
The article also brings out that:
“All of this work also leaves less time for play.”
Indeed it does as many Americans are forced to work two jobs in order to get food on the table for themselves and their children and to pay the rent each month. This also goes a long way in demonstrating that the United States, far from being “the greatest country in the world”, is instead one of the least egalitarian countries which claim to be advanced and modern on the planet.
In Russian residents will work 1974 hours in 2016
But the Russians do get far more generous holiday allowances than Americans could dream of. I heard they get at least one month also. And the professional and upper classes take really long holidays from experience.