The problem of long working hours is often linked with low wages, but not in all cases.
The French bar association (CNB) says that 44% of lawyers in the country worked 55 hours or more a week in 2008. But even though the standard hours worked in a week have been lowered to 35, many occupations demand much more. They also function as an incentive for companies to modernize their work organization, including their working time arrangements, and to invest in improving their technology and enhancing the skills of their management and workforces.įor instance, France has introduced a 35-hour working week as a part of a labour law reform in 2000, where time worked after the standard legal limit of 35 hours is considered overtime. Reasonable hours limits help to maintain workers' health and thereby their productive capacity. In contrast, statutory hours limits contribute towards enhancing productivity. Regular overtime is both harmful to workers and unproductive. Overtime is legaly regulated by most countries by a combination of regulations and collective bargaining.įor example, in France, Portugal and Spain the influence of legislation is particularly strong in Denmark, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom collective bargaining is considerably more important. According to government survey data, the average US worker receives only about 10 days of paid vacation and about 6 paid holidays per year - less than the minimum legal standard set in the rest of world's rich economies In the absence of government standards, 23 percent of Americans have no paid vacation and no paid holidays. For instance, the US offers none, but most of the rest of the world's rich countries offer at least 6 paid holidays per year (while some countries like Cambodia and Iran offer 27 paid holidays). In addition to mandated paid annual leave, workers also get paid time off for public holidays.
Australia and New Zealand require employers to grant at least 20 vacation days per year, and Canada and Japan mandate at least 10 paid days off. The US is the only industrialized country in the world that has no legally mandated annual leave and does not guarantee its workers paid vacation.Įuropean countries establish legal rights to at least 20 days of paid vacation per year (some even go higher to 25 and even 30 or more days). Most of the countries in the world have laws setting the maximum length of the work week, except the United States.
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