April 13, 2003

Workweek Woes
Posted by jbutler@bostonworks.com">Jason Butler at 11:26 AM -

In an editorial in Saturday's New York Times, John De Graaf writes about how Europeans prefer time off while Americans prefer money.

What happened? In effect, the United States as a society took all of its increases in labor productivity in the form of money and stuff instead of time. Of course, we didn't all get the money; the very poor earn even less in real terms than they did then, and the largest share of the increase went to the richest Americans. ...

By contrast, over the past 30 years, Europeans have made a different choice — to live simpler, more balanced lives and work fewer hours. The average Norwegian, for instance, works 29 percent less than the average American — 14 weeks per year — yet his average income is only 16 percent less. Western Europeans average five to six weeks of paid vacation a year; we average two.

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