USA workaholics

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxx>]

[NYT]
SEP 01, 2001
Report Shows Americans Have More 'Labor Days'
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

A United Nations agency provided some discouraging news yesterday to
Americans who believe they are overworked, finding that American
workers have increased their substantial lead over Japan and all other
industrial nations in the number of hours worked each year.

The report, issued by the International Labor Organization, found that
Americans added nearly a full week to their work year during the
1990's, climbing to 1,979 hours on average last year, up 36 hours from
1990. That means Americans who are employed are putting in nearly 49
1/2 weeks a year on the job.

Americans work 137 hours, or about three and one-half weeks, more a
year than Japanese workers, 260 hours (about six and one-half weeks)
more a year than British workers, and 499 hours (about 12 and one-half
weeks) more a year than German workers, the report said. The Japanese
had long been at the top for the number of hours worked, but in the
mid-1990's the United States surpassed Japan, and since then it has
pulled farther ahead.

"It's unique to Americans that they continue to increase their working
hours, while hours are declining in other industrialized nations,"
said Lawrence Jeff Johnson, the economist who oversaw the labor
organization's report. "It has a lot to do with the American psyche,
with American culture. American workers are eager to make the best
impression, to put in the most hours."

Many economists say the numbers demonstrate that the American economic
boom of the 1990's provided plenty of work for tens of millions of
Americans. In contrast, the economies of Europe and Japan grew far
more slowly, if at all, causing many companies to cut back on the
length of the workweek.

Patrick Cleary, senior vice president for human resources policy at
the National Association of Manufacturers, said, "Clearly, for most of
these years the increase in hours tracks outstanding economic
performance in the United States, which translates into more income
for all those workers, so we don't see this necessarily as bad news at
all."

Among the reasons for the large differences between the United States
and other countries are that Europeans typically take four to six
weeks of vacation each year while Americans take two to three weeks.
And while American employers kept adding overtime during the 1990's,
in France the government reduced the official workweek to 35 hours,
with the aim of pressuring companies to hire more workers.

Juliet Schor, a sociology professor at Boston College and the author
of "The Overworked American," said one reason for the nation's longer
average work year was that American workers seemed to be increasingly
squeezed during both booms and busts.

"All the direction seems to be for longer hours," Ms. Schor said. "In
expansions, companies keep giving more work to their workers, and in
recessions, there will be downsizing and fewer people working, but the
workers who remain have to work longer hours to retain their jobs."

Many economists say the number of hours that Americans work each year
may begin to level off now that many automakers and other
manufacturers have reduced the amount of overtime assigned due to the
economic slowdown.

Economists give many reasons for the increase in the number of hours
that Americans work. Mothers with young children tend to work sooner
and for more hours per week than young mothers did a decade or two
ago. More Americans are salaried professionals, like investment
bankers and lawyers, who often work 60 or more hours per week. In
addition, many low-wage workers have two or three jobs to make ends
meet.

In the best news for the United States, the report ranked the country
No. 1 in the world in productivity per worker. It said that last year,
productivity per American worker in constant 1990 dollars was $54,870,
about $1,500 more than Belgium, the No. 2 nation. The report found
that productivity per worker in the United States was $10,000 higher
than in Canada last year, and $14,000 higher than in Japan.

But partly because of the comparatively high number of hours that
Americans work, the report found that France and Belgium edged out the
United States in productivity per hour. In France, which ranked first,
workers produced $33.71 of value added per hour on average, compared
with $32.98 in Belgium and $32.84 in the United States.

Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, a New
York-based research group, said the large number of hours that
Americans work could result in burned-out workers with lower
productivity. "Our overall productivity is high because we work more
hours," Ms. Galinsky said. "But our research shows there is a possible
point of diminishing returns."

Geoffrey Godbey, an expert on working hours at Penn State University,
said it was hard to measure how many hours people work per week or per
year, saying those statistics often relied on workers' memories. But
officials from the International Labor Organization said their report
relied on statistics from household surveys and employer reports.