Think you’re a hard worker? Well, you might want to think again after looking at this list of the hardest-working countries.
The data, picked up by Quartz, was compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). They sampled nearly 50 countries to produce a report, the data for which comes from 2016.
In this report, top of the pile were Turkey and Colombia, where people worked an average of 47.9 hours a week. They were followed by Mexico (45.2), Costa Rica (44.9), and Chile (43.4).
- 1. Turkey, 47.9 hours a week
- 2. Colombia, 47.9
- 3. Mexico, 45.2
- 4. Costa Rica, 44.9
- 5. Chile, 43.4
- 6. South Africa, 43.1
- 7. Israel, 40.6
- 8. Poland, 39.9
- 9. Hungary, 39.6
- 10. Portugal, 39.4
The US came in at an average of 38.6 hours worked per week, while the UK was at 36.5. At the bottom of the table, and perhaps the places you want to consider moving to, were the Netherlands (29.1), Denmark (32.1), Norway (34.0), Switzerland (34.4), and Germany (34.5).
Quartz also highlighted another graph, which showed the share of those employed who worked more than 60 hours per week. While the top four remained the same, Chile dropped down to joint 11th place by this barometer. And South Africa was eighth, despite their laws prohibiting more than 45 hours per week plus 10 hours of overtime.
1. Turkey (20.9 percent of the workforce)- 2. Colombia (17.2 percent)
- 3. Costa Rica (16.7 percent)
- 4. Mexico (14.7 percent)
- 5. Indonesia (14.3 percent)
- 6. India (13.6 percent)
- 7. South Korea (12.8 percent)
- 8. South Africa (11.8 percent)
- 9. Greece (11.7 percent)
- 10. Japan (8.2 percent)
Meanwhile, just 5 percent of UK employees worked more than 60 hours per week. The US, however, had a slightly lower proportion of just 3.7 percent. At the bottom of the table were Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Hungary.
The latest OECD Employment Outlook is scheduled to be released in July this year, so we’ll be able to see whether things have changed.
