Germany, UK and France work less than 50% of the year

My biggest critic told me that in Germany they worked fewer hours, were richer than us and that this happened not only in Germany, but also in other countries. Therefore, I decided to use the sources of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank, to get data on hours worked since 2000 and per capita GDP for the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

The aim is to check whether or not the reduction in working hours has affected the wealth of the population of each country. If really in other European countries he works fewer hours than Spain or the reduced working hours are similar to Spanish or not.

In the first place, I must point out that my data obtained from the National Institute of Statistics are practically the same as those obtained from the website of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In 2000, among the countries selected, Italy was the country that reported the highest number of working hours, at 1,850 hours per year. Next was the United States with 1832, and Spain was third out of these six, and in fact, the country that indicated they worked the least number of hours was Germany with 1,466 hours per year.

GDP per capita, I got it from world bank I have used US dollars for the US and UK and € for the rest of the countries, so I can check the growth with the least possible distortion of exchange rates.

In 2000, the United States was the country with the highest per capita income, followed by Germany and the United Kingdom, very close to each other, with Spain being the country with the lowest.

Two decades later, United State, reduced their productivity in working hours by a meager 3.5%. In that country, they continue to work 220 days at an average of 8 hours, which is equivalent to 44 weeks in a year. This small reduction in working hours allowed the wealth of American citizens to grow by an average of 74.5% to reach $63,413.

Germany It is the second country to reduce its working hours by 9.2% and They only work 1332 hours and 166.5 days middle duty public Or, if you will, 33.3 weeks a year.

On average, Germans work less than 50% of the year, exactly 45.5%. Despite this, the per capita income has managed to grow by almost 52%, exceeding 40,000 euros per person per year. However, lower productivity measured in hours means that its growth compared to the United States is 22 points lower. Germans live better than they did 20 years ago, but compared to Americans they have lost a lot of purchasing power and wealth.

France, Famous for being the country with the lowest rate of work, with the famous 35-hour week approved by socialist Lionel Jospin in 1999, it was able to reduce its hourly productivity by another 10%, going from average to 1,402 work or what’s the same 175 days, 50% of the year, or 35 weeks.

With a decrease of 10%, France still achieved a 50.4% increase in GDP per capita, allowing it to reach 36,500 euros of income per French citizen. But again we see that France loses nearly 25 points from Distance with American citizens.

Spain, Which is still the second most hard-working country, also reduces its productivity by 10% like France and the purchasing power of Spaniards grows by 48.3%, despite the same decrease in working hours as France, it grows slightly less than the French economy.

United kingdom, It became the second country to work the fewest hours, after Germany, with an average working hour of 1,367 hours, which equates to 171 working days or 34 weeks. In the UK, with this productivity rate, they also work less than 50% of the year (46.8%). The 12.3% drop in productivity in a matter of hours means that British per capita income so far this century has grown only 45.7%, about 30 points less than the US population.

Italia, Of which the country with 1,850 hours worked, and which worked the most in 2000, was the country that reduced its productivity the most, dropping by 15.8%, remaining at 1,559 hours, lower than Spain. It is becoming more European, but it is also the country that, comparatively, grows the least among those analyzed here, only 37.8%, nearly half that of the United States.

So, yes, what my son told me was true, which is that people in Europe work less than in Spain. But there is an inconvenient fact that compared to 2000, which reduced the number of working hours, brought more per capita income to its citizens.

Europe will have to decide yes work less every decade and getting poorer relatively With other countries, or back to the way Turn the equation And work harder to generate more wealth.

I have no doubts about thatIf we want to compete with China who comes upon us, Either we work harder and better, or maybe they’ll force my grandchildren to work harder than their parents and grandparents.