Where The Most Workers Put in A 60-Hour Week

For many people around the world, Friday doesn't signal the end of the working week. Working hours are affected by many factors including necessity in the case of people working for the emergency services, company expectations, individual drive as well as cultural reasons in different nations. OECD research has shed light on the countries where workers are putting in 60 hours plus every week. Thankfully, the share is still low in most countries, though it does rise alarmingly in several places.

Nearly a quarter of Turkish employees worked 60 hours or more per week in their main job in 2015, the most recent year data is available, according to the OECD. Asian countries in particular have earned themselves bad reputations for poor work life balance. In South Korea, the share working very long working hours stands at 22.6 percent. In Japan, cases where people have literally died from work-related stress have made headlines and prompted the government to change attitudes towards work. There is even a word in Japanese for death from overwork - "karoshi". Workers in Japan are known to stay late and avoid taking holiday but the share working 60 hours plus is still far less than in South Korea, 9.2 percent.

The United States is also seen as a nation of workaholics with its reputation for good work life balance tarnished by a poor number of vacation days and no paid maternity leave for new mothers (though California is the first state to offer six weeks of partially paid paternity leave). Most Americans avoid late evenings in the office with the share working 60 hours or more coming to 3.8 percent.