Long Workweeks and Strange Hours

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Abstract

American workweeks are long compared to other rich countries’. Much less well-known is that Americans are more likely to work at night and on weekends. We examine the relationship between these two phenomena using the American Time Use Survey and time-diary data from France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Only small parts of the U.S.-European differences are due to observable characteristics. Adjusting for demographic and occupational differences, Americans’ incidence of night and weekend work would drop by no more than 10 percent if the average European workweek prevailed. Even if no Americans worked long hours, the incidence of unusual work times in the U.S. would far exceed those in continental Europe.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1007-1018
Number of pages12
JournalIndustrial and Labor Relations Review
Volume68
Issue number5
Early online date19 Jun 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2015

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