SOCIOECONOMIC: Work to Live or Live to Work?

As a person who likes to observe things and who have had experienced living/working for organizations based in the US, Asia and Europe, the issue of the quantity of working hours always gets me interested. Additionally, my 2 sisters live/work in Australia, making it the 4th subject of comparisons.

It is widely believed that American workers work too long of hours ("live to work") and do not have enough vacation days (10 - 20 days/year is my rough estimated averages) while our (Western developed countries) European counterparts work shorter hours ("work to live") and have abundant of vacation days (20 - 40 days/year). Australia and (more developed countries in) Asia probably fall between the US and Europe in working hours and vacation days ranges. With that said, I'm kinda using the US and Europe as proxies as I perceive them to be at the two opposite extreme sides.

The immediate term that is usually associated with this is "productivity", meaning American workers have a higher "productivity" than their European counterparts. I'm not sure if I'd agree or disagree with this as I think "productivity" is as vague a measure as it can possibly be measured. With that said, one favorite indicator of mine is the measurement of market capitalizations between comparable US and European companies, i.e.: Citigroup (US) vs. Deutsche Bank (Germany) vs. BNP Paribas (France) or AIG (US) vs. Allianz (Germany) vs. AXA (France), clearly shows that the US companies trump their German and French counterparts in term of market values despite comparable, if not smaller, in size.

I'm not writing this in the interest of pitting the US against Europe or trying to come up with which one is better, but more interested in discussing or trying to analyze what cause and what the impact of the differences.

Here are some studies and articles highlighting such differences:


http://www.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/08/30/ilo.study/
Study: U.S. employees put in most hours

You're not imagining it. The United Nations' International Labor Organization (ILO) has the proof: "Workers in the United States are putting in more hours than anyone else in the industrialized world." Lawrence Jeff Johnson -- the chief labor market economist who has led the ILO team in producing its new "Key Indicators of the Labor Market 2001-2002" study -- also says American workers are, per person, more productive than their counterparts in other countries .......


http://www.timesizing.com/1vacatns.htm
Americans have the shortest vacation in the developed world


http://www.iht.com/articles/533325.html
Should Europe work more, or America less?

Americans are materialists, Europeans civilized; Americans hardworking, Europeans lazy. Old stereotypes die hard on both sides of the Atlantic, and now they have taken on a new dimension: work time. Last week the International Monetary Fund made headlines by calling on Europeans to work more as a way to combat high unemployment, low job growth and comparatively low income levels.

There is, of course, an element of truth in these stereotypes, but as descriptions of two supposedly different cultures, they are far too simplistic ......


http://www.iht.com/articles/528334.html
Western Europe takes look at longer workweek

...... Like millions of his countrymen, he is struggling to accept the stark new reality of life in a global economy: Germans are having to work longer hours.

And not just Germans. The French, who in 2000 trimmed their workweek to 35 hours in hopes of generating more jobs, are now talking about lengthening it again, worried that the shorter hours are hurting the economy. In Britain, more than a fifth of the labor force, according to a 2002 study, works longer than the European Union's mandated limit of 48 hours a week.

..... Since the 1970s, Europeans have been willing to accept somewhat slower growth in wages as a price for fewer work hours and longer vacations. The French have an average of 25 vacation days a year, while the Germans get 30 days. The average in Japan is 18 days and in the United States, 12 days.


http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0709/p11s02-lign.html
Is paid leave near for all US workers?

Thirteen million Californians are covered by the law, which took effect July 1. They account for nearly one-tenth of the country's workforce. For them - and for the rest of the nation looking on - the law may help answer the oft-asked question: Is the United States ever likely to provide European-style paid leave?
In a new study of labor codes in 168 countries by the Labor Project for Working Families at the Harvard School of Public Health, the US ranks near the bottom in terms of paid leave.

..... Among industrialized countries, only the US and Australia provide no paid leave. Australia does offer 52 weeks of unpaid leave to all workers. By contrast, the Family and Medical Leave Act in the US provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave for 50 to 60 percent of American workers.

Work and family experts see growing support for paid leave in the US. In the past several years, five states have passed laws requiring private-sector employers to let workers use their own sick leave to care for a family member who's ill .......