An interesting study (of more than 50 countries) carried out by The International Labor Organization (ILO, a United Nations agency) says that 22 percent of the total workforce surveyed (614.2 million people) worked more than 48 hours a week and that too in countries where the legal work-week was often far shorter – ranging from 35-48 hours. These are the findings of the report:
Developed countries with the highest percentage of workers putting in more than 48-hours weekly:
- Japan: 39.3 percent
- United Kingdom: 25.7 percent
- Israel: 25.5 percent
- New Zealand: 23.6 percent
- Australia: 20.4 percent
- Switzerland: 19.2 percent
- United States: 18.1 percent
Developing nations with the highest percentage of workers putting in more than 48 hours weekly:
- Indonesia: 51.2 percent
- Peru: 50.9 percent (48 hours is the legal work week)
- Republic of Korea: 49.5 percent
- Thailand: 46.7 percent (48 hours is the legal work week)
- Pakistan: 44.4 percent (48 hours is the legal work week)
- Ethiopia: 40 percent (48 hours is the legal work week)
- Macao: 39.1 percent
There were no figures for India but if I had to guess I would say that they would indicate that more than 50 percent of Indians work more than 48 hours a week (I am not referring to the agriculture sector). I have written about this here, and have based it on my own observations.
The reasons as to why people work longer than the hours stipulated are varied and complex and I am not getting into that here. But if one has to sum up it would be because employers exploit workers and the workers themselves do over-time to supplement their income as they do not always get a decent wage by working their normal hours. This happens mostly in the unorganised sector (In India). At higher levels, many see working extra hours as a way to get ahead in the organisation.
I found some more interesting statistics in the April issue of the Economist. They talk of the average work week in the OECD countries (actual working hours, not legal working hours). These are just average working hours of the population.
On an average, the South Koreans work almost seven hours longer than workers in other OECD countries. The Americans also work longer hours (on an average) than those in western Europe. Well, from this chart and the ILO one, it does seem that poorer nations tend to work harder. Even in Europe, workers in Eastern Europe who work longer hours than those in Western Europe.
Another chart (2007 figures) which discusses the European work week takes into account the work week of full-time workers only (the Economist figures take into account working hours of both part-time and full-time workers). The picture tends to change as is evident in the chart below. It’s not Netherlands which has the shortest work week, but Italy and Spain!
Legal work week and real work week varies
What I find very interesting is that the legal limit is simply an official figure not taken seriously by either employers or workers. And this happens in developed countries as well, like France and Belgium, although they are exceptions rather than the rule. In India we know that the legal limit for working hours is not followed (except in government organisations and in a limited way in the organised sector). The excessive working hours in France is significant as now their legal weekly working hours have been reduced to 35 hours!
Britain has a flexible legal limit of 48 hours as it can be legally extended by an agreement with employees. (The rest of the EU is not happy with this arrangement of Britain’s.)
Legal work week in India
In India official weekly working hours are 48 hours per week. Which as I mentioned earlier is mostly followed by government employees and to some extent in the organised sector.
However, ASSOCHAM, a major Indian Industry body has very recently suggested an increase of weekly working hours from existing 48 to 60. I wonder whether this has any meaning considering that those who don’t want to follow the working week, don’t follow it, specially in developing countries.
As the ILO points out:
…generally, working time laws and policies often have limited influence on actual working hours in developing economies, especially in terms of maximum weekly hours, overtime payments, exceptions and exemptions, and informal employment.”
The ILO considers anyone working beyond 48 hours a week as working “excessively” but for many of us in a developing country working 50-60 hours a week is a fact of life and difficult to avoid, whether one is a manager or a worker. I wonder if ASSOCHAM’s suggestion is simply a way to formalise the overtime hours put in by workers.
Related Reading: Indians have long working hours
Do members of Parliament work as hard as the rest of us?
Public holidays in different countries and whether they affect work-weeks
24 Comments
July 7, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Very intresting information Nita!
I am a bit surprised about the statistics on Austria – here most of the people have contracts for 38 or 40 hours per week, not more. The goverment people even less, I think
I heard that Europen Union wants to increase the working hours till 48, but people get furious about it – Austrians is a relaxed nation
As for the payment, I know that in Austria at the most you can take “free days” for extra working hours, but normally you will not be paid extra..
I wonder that other readers will report about their countries?
July 7, 2008 at 12:45 pm
It’s worse in the IT sector. 60 hrs/week is the minimum in the IT companies in India. The hours are not the problem as are the timings. Working late nights is a norm for software engineers. When it comes to timings, people working in call centers are the worst affected. The hours and timings are much better in the state and central government companies – exactly eight hours per day.
July 7, 2008 at 1:30 pm
God! Indian IT companies are really bad when it comes to this.
So many people work for 12 hours a day.
The system is like that now.Deadlines are obscene. Rather than hiring more people, employees are made to work more.
From my experience, MNCs (the true blood, foreign MNCs) in IT is heaven when it comes to the number of work hours.
There is a story of tears,toil.,frustration of such employees behind the rosy story of companies driven by values and likes.
July 7, 2008 at 1:42 pm
For me its antinatural to work 48 a week.
In spain the normal its 40, not more. But i also think 40 its too much.
I see life-work in another way: I always wanted part time jobs, to have free time enough to do my things. It was hard to find this job: 29 hours a week is what i do. Of course i get less money, but i prefer to have free time and survive,
that money and no time to enjoy.
Of course i’m lucky, because this tight salary fits my needs (i have to say i’m a great saver,,,i dont spend much, so that helps)…and in many countries people might be forced to work so many hours to survive,…
Have all u a nice mondayyyyyyy!!!
July 7, 2008 at 1:44 pm
well what we are told when people come to do workshops is this…”do this thing and you will get paid this much” …now everyone one knows for that much f money you need to work like hell…but if you keep earning it and have no time to spend it what is the use?
July 7, 2008 at 1:58 pm
NO USE vishesh!
(by the way, helloooooo)
July 7, 2008 at 4:09 pm
In my country the people who complain loudest about working long hours and never having time to live or spend their money are the people who can most afford to downshift if they chose, and still have a reasonable standard of living. The people who work all the hours god sends them and still only just manage to make ends meet … somehow don’t have a voice. Down shifting to part -time hours is nonsense if you are on minimum wage. The middle classes can choose between having money or having time. The working classes (or those on low incomes) have neither money nor time.
July 7, 2008 at 4:33 pm
You remeinded me about my work!
July 7, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Axinia, thanks for that information about Austria. Do you think that perhaps people are working longer than their contracts? Maybe in some industries? It is possible, although I the research did not mention the industries which they surveyed.
Chaitu, yes some industries are very badly off where working hours are concerned. The advertising industry is another one like that, though perhaps IT is worse. Even in publications, particularly newspapers, people work long hours, although it depends a lot on what is happening around. Any crises or budget round the corner and journalists work very long hours. Service industries also have long work hours.
Nikhil, you are right, deadlines are obscene and companies do not like to hire more people. I read somewhere though that about 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work and while one shouldn’t take that literally, I think that contains a germ of truth! I know people who work long hours but bungle up and just waste time at work (inefficient people!) and others have to work hard to compensate for them or undo the damage they are doing!
Francina, you are very lucky that you can choose to work less and live a comfortable life.
Vishesh, hopefully you will enter a profession where you will be the master of your own time!
Joss, what you say is very true. I know a doctor earning pots of money who keeps complaining about the lack of time, but finds it very difficult to close shop and take a break! And that bit you said about minimum age workers is so true. One can extend the analogy to countries – Rich countries, middle income countries and poor countries! In a poor country, an educated person, say a teacher, could be working 14 hours a day and may still find it difficult to buy his own house.
Sakhi, smile and don’t work so hard! Well, you are young and hopefully soon when you have enough savings, you will be able to relax on those working hours. But actually women work harder, because what this survey has not taken into account at all is domestic work. In India a woman working outside the home is putting in some work hours at home too.
July 7, 2008 at 6:33 pm
In many work situations (especially those involving creative activities) long working hours are often NOT linked to the productivity achieved in the time spent. This means that, if the work environment is congenial, the time spent can be fun. Of course I realise that as competition at the workplace becomes increasingly cut-throat, the number of people enjoying such privilege is diminishing.
The best course to adopt — if you have a sound education, rare qualifications or abilities, and aspirations to a reasonably good quality of life without the desperate ambition to be listed in Fortune 500 (or wherever it is that they list individuals of high financial worth) — is to aim at becoming self-employed by the time you are 40. You enjoy the luxury of picking and choosing what you would or would not like to do, of setting your own working hours, and of doing things besides “work” that are fulfilling without necessarily being very paying.
July 7, 2008 at 6:40 pm
[...] on working hours at the interesting Indian blog a wide angle view on India, by Nita J. Kulkarni. I have Nita’a blog on my list as she supplies a very different point of [...]
July 7, 2008 at 6:59 pm
I work 10 hours a day, Monday to Friday and one Saturday a month. The 50 hours a week is the least amount of hours I’ve worked in the last 20 years.
July 7, 2008 at 8:21 pm
It would be interesting to see what people of each of this countries mainly work on, I mean major industries and stuff..and how many of hours go into blue vs white colored jobs..just curious
July 7, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Indians and work? Surely you cannot be serious! Mahatma Gandhi had the right understanding of Indians. He knew that only by asking them to do nothing that they would join him and that is how he developed satyagraha.
Pope John Paul was once asked as to how many people worked in the Vatican. His crisp reply was “About half”. I should imagine that this will be an overstatement for India.
We are great at pretending to by busy.
Indians want jobs where they can claim that they work X hours per week or day or whatever. They simply want to be paid to enter their attendance record every day. And the less said the better of the unionized work force, and the people employed by the largest employer of the country, the Central and State Governments and the Public Sector. What they do not want is employment which means, like our work force which is totally on daily wages and the like. You work, you get paid, otherwise, you starve. Those are the only ones who really work in this country.
July 7, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Very interesting article, Nita. The most hours per week I ever put in was when I was a small business person and employer. At the time I was in the habit of keeping scrupulous track of my time. I recall I averaged about double the hours each week that I had put in when working for others.
July 7, 2008 at 9:41 pm
One of the reasons for long working hours in India could be the “must stay on as long as the boss stays on” idea.
I remember it from my being employed in India days. Rare were the bosses who let you have a life.
July 7, 2008 at 10:53 pm
well 12 hrs is a guess a norm in most IT cos. ..but even if it is not foisted people tend to or atleast pretend(lingering in the office)..just to prove their bosses they are more hardworking as there is so much competition.
July 7, 2008 at 11:15 pm
I would also like the forum to count hours “Out of office” spent doing office work. I work for a MNC and although due to long commute would leave office in time, but would reach home and work and take conference calls till late hours.
July 8, 2008 at 3:20 am
I’m not surprised by the US figures! Its pretty easy to understand the 18.1%. However, what is difficult to understand is that people these days are already over-worked in India. So increasing it is only going to make matters more worse what with personal lives (already) getting affected and the like. Today, almost all professions are included in the “late night working syndrome” in India and I dont know how much more one has to work to earn decently enough. Why arent wages linked to the extra hours they’re now expected to put in?
July 8, 2008 at 7:37 am
Vivek, I know what you mean. I knew creative people who came and went as they pleased but I guess their minds were always working. They would produce the stuff and the bosses didn’t care what time they came or even if they came to office and apparently did not work, as long as they produced. However such things do not happen much now as work loads have increased and there simply aren’t enough people around. However, at times putting pressure on creative people can boomerang.
Brian, 50 hours a week is a lot. Americans work longer hours than they do in Europe.
Rambler, factory workers and even those who fall into the union category all follow certain rules where working hours are concerned. They get the overtime too.
Ramana, where government workers are concerned, yeah, I think they mostly pretend to work!
Paul, working at one’s own business can be a 20 hour job but at least one is working for oneself!
Alankrita, yes that’s the bad part. The boss actually frown upon it if the subordinates leave early. This makes it difficult to plan any private life as one is at the mercy of one’s boss. However in some industries this is seen more than in others.
Rahul, I believe that everyone who works long hours does not work hard. I don’t know the percentage but some people do hang around for “show.”
amlistening, I am not sure if the survey has taken into account the time spent working at home but I agree that they should. In India we tend to work at home. There is no sanctity of the week-end or home hours. Bosses call and clients call. That is why I think many Indians work all the time!
Snippetsnscribbles, wages linked to extra hours happens only at worker level and they get the benefit of fixed hours as well. But as you said, the rest of us there is no peace. Working till 10 at night was a regular feature for me while I was in advertising (the reason I quit) and even in my full-time work at a publication, one had to work for about 12-14 hours a day and Saturday was full day. However, occasionally one could take off early, but that wasn’t usual.
There is no time for family or leisure if one has a full-time job as Sundays pass with one doing household chores!
July 8, 2008 at 11:56 am
I think India has score at least 65% in above chart. In S/W industry, people have to work extra time to meet deadlines. Not all people, but more than half professionals work more than 40 hours each week.
Good collection Nita, I wonder why India % are not available!!
July 10, 2008 at 8:25 am
Suda, I tend to think so too. Almost everyone I know works more than 48 hours a week. One should do some such survey in India to get the picture.
July 11, 2008 at 10:38 am
Need to inform one thing about Indian mentality .. A person having Dutch passport though herself is of indian origin running a buying agency in india ,but treating their employees worst than the indian employer.She ask employees to work for 9 hours daily 6 days in week , giving only 5 days holidays ( 3 national holidays and two religious holidays ) and no benefit . Pls advise how to deal with this??Company is registered Pvt limited company.
Dolly, she is clearly violating the law by having the official timings as 9 hours a day and giving such few holidays. I think 8 or 10 days is the minimum per year. Not giving benefits is also illegal if the workers are not on contract. However as far as I see it, the only way is legal recourse but then few people want to go through that as they prefer to hang on to their jobs if no alternatives are available. I personally think you should look for another job. – Nita.
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