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Comment by TheFragenTaken | Hacker News Reader

I read into the numbers behind "hours worked" from OECD [1]. It seems wild to me that the United States on average works 500 more hours a year, compared to the top counties on that list, and 300 more than the EU average. I've never really been a proponent (or opponent) of the four-day work week, but this seems to indicate you become "richer" if you work less. At least according to this type of ranking.

[1]: https://data.oecd.org/emp/hours-worked.htm

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> It seems wild to me that the United States on average works 500 more hours a year

I think that ultimately stems from different workers' rights in US where people work even if sick due to the sick leave limits and low mandatory vacation days.

I'm quite sure people that are independent/self-employed in Europe work comparable numbers because they too will likely take much less vacations and sick days.

> but this seems to indicate you become "richer" if you work less.

Could this be in the opposite direction, where the richer you are, the less you need to work?

maybe the affordability issue where people need more than one job in the US is showing up here.

As a US worker that regularly interfaces with colleagues in various EU/UK sites, I am not at all surprised by the discrepancy.

Edit: Elaborating… in my experience entire countries will be on holiday for up to a month at a time, while the US offices are chugging along. (And this by and large isn’t true the opposite direction, except for Thanksgiving week.)

I’m not saying it is good or bad either way, but the US prioritizes work far more than other OECD / developed countries.

I think it's also an artifact of the size of the US labour market. The huge labour pool in the single market makes for strong competition jobs. It's a race to the bottom for pay and working conditions for tons of folks.