The pace of life in 31 countries: Western Europeans combine a fast pace with ample leisure, while Latin Americans take their time both on and off the job

American Demographics, Nov, 1997 by Robert Levine

Taking a 40-hour week as a base, these figures mean that the average Japanese salaryman spends five more weeks on the job than his colleagues in the United States and over twelve and one-half weeks-over three months!-more than workers from France and West Germany. Looked at another way, only 27 percent of the Japanese labor force works as little as a five-day, 40-hour per week job, compared with 85 percent in the United States and 92 percent in France.

It is notable that the difference in working hours between Western Europe and other first-world countries is widening. Until the 1940s, the average hours in both Europe and the United States had been declining in tandem for nearly a century. In the United States, as in Europe, the issue of shorter hours was at the heart of the labor movement from the beginning; the question of work hours was once the "cause of awakening" of the American laborer. "Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, eight hours for what we will," was the cry of turn-of-the-century unionists. But in the United States as a whole, the average work week has remained unchanged for more than half a century.

In Europe, on the other hand, the downward trend in work hours has hardly missed a beat. Unlike the United States, organized labor in Europe has kept the issue of shorter working hours at the top of its agenda throughout the postwar period. Workers in France-where work is sometimes viewed as an irritating, if necessary, interruption to living-are fighting for even more lenient contracts. In 1996, after French truck drivers snarled the country with a series of bitter strikes, the government conceded to lower their retirement age to 55. With that issue settled, unions are now focusing their attention on the length of the work week.

Western Europe also leads the United States, and Japan, by an even wider margin in vacation time. In France, for example, workers by law receive at least five weeks and often six weeks of paid vacation. Every country in Europe, in fact, has collective bargaining agreements guaranteeing minimum paid vacations ranging from four to five and one-half weeks. In most cases, these mandated vacation periods range up to six weeks. In Sweden, it goes as high as eight weeks.

Generous leave time is also provided for other purposes. In France, for example, it is official national policy to allow women 22 weeks of paid maternity leave and an additional year of unpaid leave. The social welfare states of Scandinavia go even further. In Sweden, for example, new parents are entitled to a combined 12 months' leave of absence at nearly full pay, and another three months at reduced pay.

In the United States, on the other hand, vacation time for most workers remains limited to the traditional two weeks-that is, if they have been fortunate enough to avoid being shifted to seasonal contracts, in which case they may get no paid vacation at all. In Japan, vacation time is even scarcer than it is in the United States. Although the average number of paid vacation days offered in Japan hovers around a respectable three weeks, the Japanese Ministry of Labor reports that only about half of this time is actually used. In 1990, for example, an average of 15.5 days of vacation time were authorized, of which 8.2 days were taken.