Americans are hard workers, according to one article, with employees averaging 34.4 hours per week. This average includes part-timers.
When considering only full-time employees, the average is 47 hours per week. In comparison, those in the Netherlands average only 26.6 hours per week. What’s more, U.S. workers have less vacation time — about 15 days off, compared with 28 days off in many European countries.
But it seems that there’s no pleasing some workers when it comes to hours. Some want more hours, some want fewer. Examples:
- Employees at some companies want more hours.
- Some part-timers want to be full time. There are 6.6 million part-timers today, many of whom would choose to have full-time jobs.
- Some Seattle workers benefiting from the higher minimum wage of $15 per hour asked that their hours be reduced so that their income won’t cause them to lose government benefits.
What does this mean for employers (especially small business owners)? You have to do what you have to do (what works best for your company).
Factors in setting workers hours for some businesses include increased minimum wage rates and exposure to the employer obligation under the Affordable Care Act.
Of course, whatever hours you set for employees, as the business owner, you’re likely to work considerably more.
