We need more jobs with longer hours
Coberly: “We need more jobs with longer hours and cheaper plastic toys to distract ourselves from our empty lives.” being facetious . . . .
Or Do we? EMichael:
American Average Work Hours:
- At least 134 countries have laws setting the maximum length of the work week; the U.S. does not.
- In the U.S., 85.8 percent of males and 66.5 percent of females work more than 40 hours per week.
- According to the ILO, “Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers.”
- Using data by the U.S. BLS, the average productivity per American worker has increased 400% since 1950. One way to look at that is that it should only take one-quarter the work hours, or 11 hours per week, to afford the same standard of living as a worker in 1950 (or our standard of living should be 4 times higher). Is that the case? Obviously not. Someone is profiting, it’s just not the average American worker.
American Paid Vacation Time & Sick Time:
- There is not a federal law requiring paid sick days in the United States.
- The U.S. remains the only industrialized country in the world that has no legally mandated annual leave.
- In every country included except Canada and Japan (and the U.S., which averages 13 days/per year), workers get at least 20 paid vacation days. In France and Finland, they get 30 – an entire month off, paid, every year.
- Then there’s this depressing graph on average paid vacation time in industrialized countries:
The U.S. is the Most Overworked Developed Nation in the World
EMichael; Open Thread, August 2, 2021
I missed Cob’s snark. Apologies.
does he mean more jobs (as each of us have to have multiple jobs at one time, just going from one to the other that the employer needs us? ) or that we need one job that has all the hours we need and pays well to boot? plus i suppose being the most over worked in the world must mean we are the happiest? were not???????? sounds like the same deal with healthcare, we dont do that all that well (being on the low end scale for how long we live…..and that was probably before pandemic happened…..probably worse now)
dw:
Perhaps one job which gives a person a secure existence in the world from working a normal amount of hours and replete with healthcare for self and family. It is not entirely out of reach.
as more of our workers move to other countries in order to enjoy these shorter hours, our country will suffer from brain drain.
Are paid work hours actually increasing? I got the impression, from the BLS, that the actual number of paid hours is down to around 35 now. Most of my friends are exempt employees, but the main complaint of those who are non-exempt is that they can’t get enough hours to live on. Most companies have systems that track hours and try to spread them around. Good weeks might mean 40 hours but no more, because that would trigger overtime. Bad weeks mean good luck getting 30 hours and keeping your health insurance or other benefits.
I know the work week for exempt employees has been increasing, but that’s because employers don’t have to pay them by the hour.
Kaleberg:
It is still a supply chain problem. It is akin to companies believing they would never be back in business again. It did come back and will come back even stronger. This is similar to what happened after 2008.
“Just put everyone on salary (overtime exempt), then there will be plenty work hours for everyone” said the retired guy.
well, actually i was trying to make the point that we all think we can fight global warming without consuming less or paying more. maybe science will save us.
and yes i am still trying to be ironic.
Coberly,
Reality is ironic enough without any help from us, but I fully subscribe to the urge to add toppings of strange nuts, but rarely syrup.