If the legal working time in France is 35 hours per week, some employees do not hesitate to accumulate overtime. According to a Eurostat study, 7% of European workers in 2022 exceeded the threshold of 49 hours per week, i.e. 9h48 per day (Monday to Friday).
Among the hardest workers are the self-employed. About 30% of them worked the 49 hours in 2022, compared to 4% among employees. They are then 28% among qualified employees to work long hours in addition, in particular in agriculture, forestry and fishing. Finally, executives are 24% to work more than 9h48 daily.
There are, however, disparities between the countries of the European Union. Greek employees reach first place in the ranking with 13% of them working more than 40 hours per week. The average is then 10.2% in France – against 10% in 2021 – and 9.7% in Cyprus.
Italy, Portugal and Belgium have a rate of 9% of workers crossing the 49-hour threshold. Spain and Switzerland follow them, at 7% each, followed by Germany and its 6%. The lowest rates – and therefore the workers working the least overtime – are found in Eastern Europe, such as Bulgaria, Lithuania and Latvia.