Americans work 25% more than Europeans

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Sure, it sounds good on paper. But you're not going to get people to take a pay cut for less hours. And it would be a pay cut because you can't force employers to pay people the same amount for less hours.

Not convinced, like at all.

[micwini]

Americans work more hours because they need more time to do stuff we can do in less time.
NA brains LUL

[Deleted]

Sure, it sounds good on paper. But you're not going to get people to take a pay cut for less hours. And it would be a pay cut because you can't force employers to pay people the same amount for less hours.

Actually you can... Labor unions?

[Quincey]

I don't know how you can call 40 hours a week absolutely terrible and a travesty. Working 10-12 hours a day is absoultely terrible and a travesty, 8 hours isn't all that bad, seeing how we've been able to do it for hundreds of years.

The travesty is that some people can barely survive working 40 hours a week and can't afford to miss any work.

Yeah that makes no sense to me. I work 24ish hours a week and live comfortably + have a reasonable amount of savings and my job isn't that good =\

I gotta figure people working 40+ and not managing to get by must waste a metric ton of money on useless crap.

[Mistame]

Not convinced, like at all.

This is not relevant, like at all.

Actually you can... Worker unions?

I'm not sure you understand how unions work.

[IntellectuallyChallenged]

I wonder if there's a statistic that shows the number of Americans that spread themselves too thin and spend more than they actually have as opposed to Europeans. Because I suspect that the reason most Americans "work more" is to compensate for their frivolity. Which would make all of that our own fault. Individually.

[tj119]

I don't even have to work anymore and I still go into work nearly 70 hours a week.

[Deleted]

Stop being lazy Europeans.

[Mad_Murdock]

Yeah that makes no sense to me. I work 24ish hours a week and live comfortably + have a reasonable amount of savings and my job isn't that good =\
I gotta figure people working 40+ and not managing to get by must waste a metric ton of money on useless crap.

Well, it all depends on where you live. I lived in Washington DC and like many of the large US cities, you spend 75% of your pay check on rent of a crappy apartment and when you feel good about yourself you get a home that that cost way too much for way to little. Then you spend another chunk on transportation. Either busing, subways, taxis or a car with all it's emissions testing or parking fees

When I got out of the Army back in 94, I got a job making 33K a year (right at $15 an hour) and it was just enough to get a shitty $700 a month apartment and to and from money. I often worked weekends, holidays to have some extra cash, so I understand the issue with working 40+ hours and not having much to show for it.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't even have to work anymore and I still go into work nearly 70 hours a week.

Well, I''m sure the real conversation is "have to" versus "want to". I think we can look throughout history and see many of your greatest inventions came from people putting in 90 hour weeks. Of course, it was their passions and they were doing what they enjoyed, which is a different than being in some Blood diamond mining camp being forced to work 12 hours a day.

[McFuu]

I have a dream job of sorts, make my own schedule, on salary, get paid overtime, company vehicle with paid gas I can use for personal reasons. Even within the small another of guys some still choose to work many hours. I average about 50 a week, but others are lower, under 40, one guy has been working 80+ hours the past couple of months. Obviously we get paid for it though.

Honestly I think it's just work ethic in America that causes the difference.

[Wikko]

I doubt any american wants to work more than 40 hours a week. But when your country has next to no workers rights then it's easy to force everyone to do what the employee wants. Just get rid of that At Will employment style where you can fire anyone anytime for any reason.

[Vizardlorde]

oh yea i forgot about salaried positions, You are expected to work as long as needed (usually 1-3 hrs past the 8 they pay you for) despite them telling you your salary would be equivalent to a 15$/hr wage as the year passes you are making something closer to $11-12.

[vindicatorx]

I mean I get paid for 40 hours a week but all I normally do is either watch anime or read manga. I also have built about 10 Gundam models at work while being paid. That and I come in about 30min to an hour late daily and leaver an hour earlier at least so I spend roughly 30 hours @ work a week. When I am offered Overtime I of course take it cause I'm not turning down the bonus OT rate.

[Deleted]

I don't know how you can call 40 hours a week absolutely terrible and a travesty. Working 10-12 hours a day is absoultely terrible and a travesty, 8 hours isn't all that bad, seeing how we've been able to do it for hundreds of years.

The travesty is that some people can barely survive working 40 hours a week and can't afford to miss any work.

If you think 40 hours a week isn't bad you're conditioned to think so. It's a joke of a system having 5 days on and 2 days off just to survive.

[Deleted]

Some people are still thinking that the longer they work, the more they produce... Can you run a Marathon at the speed of a sprint ?

One very interesting quote from the dev world :
"Sometimes it pays to stay in bed on Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday's code." ~Dan Salomon

source : http://www.quotegarden.com/programming.html
a couple of other ones are extremely funny, especially when you are a dev... ;-)

[McFuu]

I doubt any american wants to work more than 40 hours a week. But when your country has next to no workers rights then it's easy to force everyone to do what the employee wants. Just get rid of that At Will employment style where you can fire anyone anytime for any reason.

That's not really what at will is. Employer still need to disclose reasons for termination, and use the reasons aren't real they still pay for your unemployment rights to the state.

[zenkai]

...and asians work 25% more than all of us combined.

Never thought somebody brings that up as an excuse for playing WoW and possible handing your US guys your sorry ass in the mythic world first

Especially since there are like

2.5 million US people playing WoW out of 350 million citizens
2.5 million EU people playing WoW out of 500 million citizens
4 million Asian people playing WoW out of over a billion citizens

Every Asian country works 25% more than the US? I had no idea.

Can you clear up what you wrote in bold, I am really having a hard time trying tying to understand what you are getting at.

[Deleted]

I'm not sure you understand how unions work.

I'm not sure you do, because same pay for less working hours is actually a thing they accomplish. Unless you are talking on an individual basis.
They work differently in America for sure, because it seems like workers have nearly no rights there. Why they are still unorganized like this is really questionable.
Why is this not a thing there?

[Deleted]

Does this mean Americans suck at their jobs? Since they work more than Europeans but have a smaller economy. Seems to me like they're less efficient.

[Kathranis]

Work more but get paid less.