How Many Hours Are In The Average Working Week?

How do we, as multinational business professionals, define the working week? When we consider it in terms of the number of hours worked, we encounter significant variability, raising questions about what this means for productivity, GDP, and employee equity.

Recent data (Annual Working Hours by Country: Fascinating Insights – Infographic Website) reveals unexpected trends in global working hours and provides insights that prove essential for global success. Cultural norms, economic necessities, local geography, and legal rulings in each country shape this variability, which presents benefits and challenges for global business leaders.  reveals unexpected trends in global working hours and provides insights that prove essential for global success. Cultural norms, economic necessities, local geography, and legal rulings in each country shape this variability, which presents benefits and challenges for global business leaders.

For example, the working week in the Western world is Monday through Friday. In contrast, it is Sunday through Thursday in most of the Middle East because Friday is a Holy Day.

However, research indicates that maximized productivity doesn’t always correlate with the highest number of hours worked. Therefore, when working cross-culturally, business leaders must adapt to domestic working cultures and build diverse and efficient teams to dispel stereotypes about productivity.

Let’s look at specific regions in closer detail…

China

China’s historic 996 work culture, which involves working from 9 am to 9 pm six days a week, is discouraged by Chinese authorities but has become a cultural expectation. This is mainly due to previously low wages, a low standard of living, and a requirement to boost production as the country’s economy developed.Recent data China’s Workforce is Burning Out Working More Hours Than Slaves for a Fraction of the Pay – CTOL Digital Solutions shows China’s working hours remain high (exceeding the ILOS recommended maximum of 48.8 hours per week).

In 2021, Chinese authorities warned that such punishing work schedules are illegal. China’s top court and labor ministry detailed 10 court decisions related to labor disputes, many involving workers being forced to work overtime. The cases came from a cross-section of industries, from tech to construction, and all complainants were successful.

Although the law has not been well enforced, employees are striving to be the catalyst for a cultural transformation. Labor rights expert Li Jupeng validates this shift, particularly in millennials, who he believes are more aware of their rights and, thanks to improved life chances, are determined to achieve a work-life balance: “In my experience, young people, especially the post-90s generation, are reluctant to work overtime – they are more self-centered.”

India

India’s working week exceeds China’s, with an average of 56 hours per week. Excessively long working weeks are anecdotally considered a problematic culture that developed in tandem with the rise of the service industry.

Following the sudden death of 26-year-old Anna Sebastian Perayil in July 2024, linked to unrealistic workplace demands, and another employee having alleged being made to work 20-hour days, international corporates like Ernst and Young have been forced to advocate for the wellbeing of their employees.

Chandrasekhar Sripada, a professor at the Indian School of Business, said that toxic work culture was a “complex, multi-stakeholder problem” and that everyone, from industry leaders to managers to employees and even society, would have to change the way they viewed productivity for there to be any real change. We need to stop confusing hard work with productive work.’ 

Europe

Western Europe has been averaging 35-40 hours a week for over two decades, but there are variations in productivity levels between regions. Despite stereotypically lengthy French lunches, French productivity may exceed Germany’s, which is traditionally seen as the archetype of efficiency. The UK, Spain, and Italy work more hours, almost on par with the USA, yet productivity is reduced.

A 35-40-hour​​ week is not standard practice among all European neighbors. Due to an ageing workforce and skills shortages, Greece introduced new legislation in 2024 to allow for a 6-day week in the manufacturing and industrial sectors and shift work in businesses that operate 24/7. The government insisted it was an ‘exceptional measure’ but inequitable with current practice in neighboring countries like Belgium.

This leads to the drive for a four-day week while maintaining existing salaries. Germany, Portugal, and Spain are all piloting 4-day weeks; the impact on Spain’s already reduced productivity remains to be seen. Reportedly, a 2022 UK pilot was hugely successful, with 90 percent of businesses choosing to keep their four-day weeks after the pilot. The trial was based on the 100-80-100 model: workers got 100 percent pay for working 80 percent of their previous hours in exchange for a commitment to maintaining 100 percent productivity. Most employers saw their productivity levels maintained and observed improvements in staff retention, employee well-being, and decreased sick days. Which in turn supports profitability.

The four-day workweek is being considered as a potential solution to the crisis in German car manufacturing. IG Metall, Germany’s largest industrial union, has proposed a four-day model to avert plant closures and mass redundancies, emulating a similar switch made in the mid-1990s when Volkswagen successfully preserved tens of thousands of jobs.

Mexico

Mexico clocks up the most hours, rivaling India. Employees are only entitled to six days of annual leave after completing a full year of employment; after five years, they are entitled to two additional days of leave granted by the government. Some newer companies implement more flexible schedules and increased annual leave, but it isn’t commonplace.

Working hours are 9 am-6 pm, but many employees are used to working past that, although they are compensated by long lunch breaks between 2 pm and 4 pm. Mexicans are reported to find the 48-hour working week beneficial; there is flexibility to schedule work around family routines, and most employers restrict overtime to guard against fatigue.

The USA

The USA has a longer working week than Mexico, although the standard working day is shorter from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Their lunch break is a rushed 30 minutes, and many Americans regularly work beyond their 5 p.m. finish time. Americans strongly identify with pride in their work and are committed to their employers. On average, they get 2 weeks of annual leave.

Still, there is no statutory minimum and a cultural reluctance to take annual leave. In 2018, a study showed that American workers failed to use 768 million days of paid time off – a 9 percent increase from 2017. In very competitive workplaces, employees who take leave fear being mistreated or losing out on future opportunities. Another 2018 study showed that one of the biggest reasons US workers didn’t take time off was the fear that they were replaceable. However, a 2019 study revealed one in three Americans would take a pay cut to get unlimited vacation days.

Practical Solutions for Differences in Working Hours

With Indian employees working 56-hour weeks and French colleagues working 35-hour weeks, creating cohesive teams and equity for employees can be challenging. The graph above clearly illustrates that countries with shorter working weeks can have higher productivity levels.

The solution is unlikely to be standardization but flexibility. The 864-hour annual gap between the longest and shortest-working OECD countries demands flexible policy frameworks. Global organizations must balance regional norms with sustainable practices that promote productivity and employee well-being. Employees seek a healthier work-life balance, and there is greater recognition of the need to support employee well-being.

Hybrid and remote working flexibility are key to accommodating diverse time zones and equity for employees with schedules tailored to regional needs. Multinational managers should be trained in and understand cultural nuances relating to work habits.

Actual rather than contractual work hours should also be tracked and analyzed to improve​​ planning and support employee well-being. Company-wide policies to discourage overwork are needed, and in keeping with Jupeng’s views, these need to be implemented against the backdrop of attitudinal change in educational, corporate, and societal settings to promote balance.

Working patterns and practical solutions cannot be examined without considering the role of AI. Countries like the UK, Iceland, and Portugal have had positive trial runs of letting AI take the strain of giving office workers a three-day weekend. A survey by Tech.co found that 29 percent of the 1000 companies with 4-day weeks use AI extensively, and only 8 percent of organizations working 5-day weeks use AI. London-based digital agency Drifttime said, ‘By handing over simple tasks to AI, we gain invaluable time previously lost to slow aspects of the process.’

Shaped by education, economic, and cultural factors, the variation and inequity in the global working week and provision for employee well-being and work-life balance are evident. Stereotypes, in some cases, appear to be inaccurate, and evidence indicates that productivity increases not through length or volume of hours worked but through nuanced and more competent working patterns. However, to truly analyze the length of the global working week, actual hours worked need to be examined in conjunction with contractual hours worked.

Changing working patterns require changes in workplace and societal culture and strengthened employee boundaries. AI will likely play a key role in reducing the number of hours businesses work to increase productivity.

At Global Business Culture, we run hundreds of country-specific training programs for corporate clients worldwide. These programs help people interact more effectively with the target country and improve business outcomes. 

We achieve this aim by ensuring that all of our country-specific training programs are intensely practical and structured to cover the areas of critical importance for each client. We’d love to hear from you if you’re interested in learning more!