Whenever politicians in America start making noise about building walls along our borders, it’s worth asking — are these walls to keep visitors out, or to keep American citizens in? Because if working-class Americans could travel the world a little more freely, they’d quickly discover how poor their quality of life is, compared with working-class folks in other developed economies. Among other factors, Americans put in very long hours in return for low and stagnant wages.
Americans believe they have a meritocracy — but there are thousands of reasons why this is not the case. What we do have is a labor mill. It brought us slave labor, child labor, sweatshop labor, undocumented labor, prison labor, unpaid internships and other insults to human dignity and autonomy.
To put it mildly, Americans are overworked. And thanks to generations of propaganda from robber barons, most of us think it’s been our idea this whole time.
Americans Work Very Long Hours Every Week
In 2014, a Gallup poll revealed that Americans work some of the longest hours per week of any group of workers in the developed world. The precise figure was 47 hours per week, which is far higher than the 35 hours worked in Germany and Sweden. Something called the “Working Time Directive” ensured that workers in the UK receive legal protection from working more than 48 hours in one week. That’s just one more hour than Americans “choose” to work, as a matter of course, every single week.
Some say the long hours worked by Americans represents a sign of inefficiency — not efficiency. And worse than that, it’s inhuman. In France and Germany, where workers average 28.33 hours per week and 26.37 hours per week, respectively, workers are happier. And they’re happier because employee happiness is a specific priority for job creators there. Happiness in our personal lives must have strong roots in workplace happiness. Even work that’s not 100 percent engaging takes on new meaning and weight when employees feel valued, and like they can easily balance their personal aspirations with the demands of their work lives.
Americans Don’t Take Vacations or Breaks
Another head-scratcher about the way Americans work is the pride with which they shun vacations and even breaks during the day. The trend is so significant there’s an entire grassroots movement built around proving to Americans that this isn’t normal elsewhere in the world. One part of that movement — Project Time Off — found that in 2017, 52 percent of employed Americans had left some of their vacation time on the table.
Look at it this way — this is a forfeiture of some 212 million total vacation days, or more than $60 billion in unclaimed employment benefits. Many Americans make a choice every day to saber-rattle against “socialism” and “communism” and believe mistakenly that these systems would rob them of the fruits of their labors. However incredible it may seem, Americans already choose to “donate” their time, their money and their lives — and they don’t even care that they don’t receive everything once promised in return.
Compared with the “standard” two weeks of paid vacation many Americans are offered, but rarely use, workers in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe enjoy five weeks or more per year in paid time off. The reason? Science confirms the benefits of time away from work and other responsibilities — including higher productivity.
In other words, everything about the way Americans have pursued higher rates of economic output and productivity has proven almost as wrong as possible.
Why Do Americans Live This Way?
In a word, we can thank the doctrine of “growth.”
Politicians across most of the political spectrum in the U.S. don’t generally promise “economic participation” for all, or “worthwhile jobs” for all, or even a “minimum wage” for all that reflects current economic realities. Instead, what we hear promised, for entire generations, is “Economic Growth.”
The fact that Americans work harder than anyone else in the developed world, and yet have only seen their paychecks either stagnate or shrink over the last several decades, is proof that putting “economic growth” and “capital” and “shareholders” before human dignity is a race to the bottom of everything we love.
One hundred years ago, most Americans worked 60 hours or so. The fact we work only 40 now, thanks to working-class advocacy, is progress. But technological advancements should practically ensure that each generation works fewer hours while achieving the same level of economic productivity.
Remember that it took a public tongue-lashing from somebody who calls themselves a “socialist” for Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.com to raise the wages of their warehouse workers to something that almost reflects economic realities of this century.
As soon as more Americans realize their wages haven’t moved in decades, we can expect other companies to receive their fair share of worker discontent, too, and probably a wider and louder call for stronger union protections.
There’s also the matter of paid sick leave and paid family leave — another political fight that’s long overdue in the U.S. Whereas American workers are guaranteed zero paid family leave, Norway provides for 91 days and Finland grants up to three years. They value life and the nuclear family in a way that Americans manifestly do not.
Again, the question — “Why?” It’s fair to say many Americans worry about losing their jobs. And they worry about their jobs because workers in America are conditioned to think of themselves as interchangeable parts.
So, we haven’t taken vacations, we work long hours every week, we eat lunch at our desks, and, with millennials on the scene, we’re set to start getting married less and having fewer babies. Because we can’t afford to. Because we don’t want to lose our jobs to somebody who’s more “career-oriented.” In a free society, does nobody else think that maybe — just maybe — something’s gotta give?
Kate is a health and political journalist. You can subscribe to her blog, So Well, So Woman, to read more of her work and receive a free subscriber gift! https://sowellsowoman.com/about/subscribe/