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In the mid-2000s, the Netherlands was the first country in the industrialized world where the overall average working week dropped to less than 30 hours. In developed economies, as the time needed to manufacture goods has declined, more working hours have become available to provide services, resulting in a shift of much of the workforce between sectors.Įconomic growth in monetary terms tends to be concentrated in health care, education, government, criminal justice, corrections, and other activities rather than those that contribute directly to the production of material goods. Technology has also continued to improve worker productivity, permitting standards of living to rise as hours decline. Working hours in industrializing economies like South Korea, though still much higher than the leading industrial countries, are also declining steadily. In 1995, China adopted a 40-hour week, eliminating half-day work on Saturdays (though this is not widely practiced). The decline continued at a faster pace in Europe: for example, France adopted a 35-hour workweek in 2000. The limitation of working hours is also proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and European Social Charter. The workweek, in most of the industrialized world, dropped steadily, to about 40 hours after World War II. Over the 20th century, work hours shortened by almost half, partly due to rising wages brought about by renewed economic growth and competition for skilled workers, with a supporting role from trade unions, collective bargaining, and progressive legislation. History ġ906 – strike for the 8 working hours per day in France Popular perception is still aligned with the old academic consensus that hunter-gatherers worked far in excess of modern humans' forty-hour week. These studies expanded the definition of work beyond purely hunting-gathering activities, but the overall average across the hunter-gatherer societies he studied was still below 4.86 hours, while the maximum was below 8 hours.
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Subsequent studies in the 1970s examined the Machiguenga of the Upper Amazon and the Kayapo of northern Brazil. Aggregated comparisons show that on average the working day was less than five hours. Since the 1960s, the consensus among anthropologists, historians, and sociologists has been that early hunter-gatherer societies enjoyed more leisure time than is permitted by capitalist and agrarian societies for instance, one camp of !Kung Bushmen was estimated to work two-and-a-half days per week, at around 6 hours a day.
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The employer pays higher rates for overtime hours as required in the law. Standard working hours (or normal working hours) refers to the legislation to limit the working hours per day, per week, per month or per year. In developed countries like the United Kingdom, some workers are part-time because they are unable to find full-time work, but many choose reduced work hours to care for children or other family some choose it simply to increase leisure time. For example, someone who is supporting children and paying a large mortgage might need to work more hours to meet basic costs of living than someone of the same earning power with lower housing costs. Working time may vary from person to person, often depending on economic conditions, location, culture, lifestyle choice, and the profitability of the individual's livelihood. Many countries regulate the work week by law, such as stipulating minimum daily rest periods, annual holidays, and a maximum number of working hours per week. Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week. Working time is the period of time that a person spends at paid labor.
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