DO U.S. WORKERS "LIVE TO WORK"?
Many people around the world believe that U.S. adults live only to work. Do we really work that much harder than people in other countries? To answer this question, we turn to data collected by OECD, and organization that does research on economy development issues. The following figures represent the average hours worked per week (total number of hours on average employee works per year, divided by 52), averaged over the more recent 5 years available, for countries that are members of the OECD:
1. South Korea 46.7
2. Greece 39.9
3. Hungary 38.6
4. Czech Republic 38.2
5. Poland 38.1
6. Mexico 36.0
7. Italy 35.2
8. Iceland 34.9
9. New Zealand 34.9
10. Japan 34.5
11. Canada 33.6
12. Slovak Republic 33.5
13. Australia 33.4
14. Finland 33.2
15. United States 33.0
16. Spain 32.7
17. Portugal 32.5
18. United Kingdom 32.4
Questions
1.Do these results surprise you? Why or why not?
2.Why do you think U.S. employees have a reputation of "living to work"
3.Do these results prove that Koreans, for example, are more motivated to work than their U.S. counterparts? Why or why not?
4.A research study suggested that changes in hours worked over time are due, in part, to changes in tax rates. "If taxes and [government expenditures] are high, that may lead to less work," said one of the researchers. Supporting this theory, since 2001, works in the United States have increased their hours worked while tax rates have dropped. What theory or theories of motivation might support such a change?