Overworked: Implications for a Shorter Workweek (joint with Laura Pilossoph and Anthony Swaminathan)

Abstract:

More than two thirds of full-time workers in German and UK survey data are overworked---they would like to reduce weekly hours at their current hourly wage. This holds across most worker and job characteristics and has been stable for decades. The costs of these wedges are large, totaling around 1% of GDP, implying potentially large gains from a shorter workweek. Simple willingness-to-pay calculations suggest an optimal length of the workweek in Germany of 33-36 hours. The gains are largest for workers that are married, female, white-collar, mid-age, and those with children.