All over the world, humans use the 24 hours of the day differently. Here’s a look at how people aged 15 to 64 in different countries spend their days.
Published at 6:00 a.m.
INFOGRAPHICS THE PRESS
The averages are taken from the timetables of people aged 15 to 64.
Are we working more than before?
It feels like we’re working more than before, but the data paints a different picture. In Western countries, the number of hours spent at work has been decreasing for several generations. “From 1870 to 1913, the decline was relatively slow,” report authors Charlie Giattino and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina in their analysis for Our World in Data. Then, from 1913 to 1938, the decline in hours deepened as powerful sociopolitical, technological, and economic changes took place.
INFOGRAPHICS THE PRESS
Source : Our World in Data
In the past, the spheres of production (business work) and reproduction (family work) were separate, and different people assumed them. Now there is overlap, both men and women want to be present in both spheres. While working hours have decreased from 60 hours to 48, then 40 and often 35 or 32 today, we have a “perception” of overload, especially mental overload.
Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, professor at the School of Administration Sciences at TÉLUQ University
Better standard of living
Since the 1950s, we have noticed that the fall in the number of hours worked per year has coincided with an enrichment of citizens. This is due to the increase in productivity. Each hour worked produces more wealth. The country therefore prospers even if people spend less time at work. “At the most concrete level, labor productivity reflects such things as the number of loaves baked by a baker in an hour, or the number of cars assembled by factory workers in an hour,” report authors Charlie Giattino and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina in their analysis for Our World in Data.
INFOGRAPHICS THE PRESS
Source : Our World in Data
Wealth can come from better work organization, better human resources management, better employee training, as in the Nordic countries and Germany. It is possible to reduce working time and be as efficient, or even more efficient. For example, some companies decided that meetings would not exceed one hour, and were able to move to a four-day or 32-hour week, without loss of productivity or performance.
Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, professor at the School of Administration Sciences at TÉLUQ University
Less poor in leisure
In the past, leisure time could fit into half a day, typically on Sunday afternoon. The idea of having a full day – let alone two – without working wouldn’t have crossed most people’s minds. But the world is very different today, note Charlie Giattino and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina. “When today’s richest countries were poor, people were not only often unable to afford basic necessities like food and medicine: they were also poor in hobbies. When productivity is low, you have to work a lot to get by. People could not afford to spend much time improving their condition, educating themselves, or simply enjoying their leisure time. »
INFOGRAPHICS THE PRESS
Source : Our World in Data
10 hours a day
PHOTO ILBUSCA, GETTY IMAGES
A sewing shop in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1898
This is the number of hours worked by the average American adult in the 1880s. This work took place six days a week. We are therefore talking about a 60-hour work week.
Source : Dora Costa, The Wage and the Length of the Work Day : From the 1890s to 1991
Henry Ford and the 40-hour work week
PHOTO LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Henry Ford
“In 1926, Henry Ford closed factories two days a week, triggering the movement towards the five-day week we know today,” writes Béatrice Bernard-Poulin, in her new book Hello, dream job : forget the 9 to 5 and earn your living the way you want [éditions Logiques]. According to him, it was a way to improve the quality of life of his employees… but also to increase their productivity! He continued to offer the same weekly pay to assembly line workers, only requiring them to work 40 hours per week. As a result, it also gave them more time to consume (i.e. spend their money). We must make the wheel of capitalism turn…”
More young, less well-off Quebecers are pursuing higher education
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The university enrollment rate of young people from more modest economic backgrounds has increased by almost a third in around fifteen years.
“According to a Desjardins study, between 2001 and 2017, there was a 28% increase in the university registration rate for young people located in the bottom quintile, that is, those with lower incomes than the average. Conversely, this increase was 10% in the top quintile. This means that low-income young people are increasingly present in higher education schools. »
Source: Béatrice Bernard-PoulinHello, dream job : forget the 9 to 5 and earn your living the way you wantLogic editions.
