I live with a German national, who often tells me that we Americans spend way too much of our lives at work. He also frequently comments that we work much less efficiently than Germans do, during the increased time we’re at work.

Which reminds me—I need to pay my water bill online....

OK, I’m back. Quick, wasn’t it? So convenient. Now, where was I? Oh, work habits.

After checking the hourly weather forecast, I created this bar chart in Minitab, using international labor data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

These data seem to indicate that Americans generally work longer weekly hours than many western Europeans, including Germans. But we’re not the extreme. We work fewer weekly hours, on average, than workers in many other countries, including Colombia, Turkey, and Costa Rica.¹

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