Productivity | Which EU country works the longest hours?

Workers in the UK are putting in the longest hours into their careers in the European Union (EU), according to a new study recently conducted by TUC.

Full-time workers in Britain clocked up an average of 42 hours per week in 2018 – a figure that is nearly two hours more than the average in the rest of the EU. This is the equivalent to two and a half weeks extra work each year.

And whilst British workers face the stigma of a ‘long-hours culture’, the extra time spent in work is having a marked effect on productivity. Full-time workers in Germany work 1.8 hours less per week but are on average 14.6% more productive; in Denmark – the EU country with the shortest working hours – workers put in an average of four hours less than the UK, yet workers are 23.5% more productive.

The average full-time week in Britain has shortened by just 18 minutes over the past decade; this is nowhere near fast enough to close the gap with other countries – according to TUC.