Neither Spain, nor Portugal, nor Greece. The country where you work less in Europe has a surprising protagonist: Germany
In May, and through Eurostat dataa reality was found that sometimes confuses a story: the myth that says that the Germans work more than the Spaniards It was not held With the figures in the hand. The key, like We comment thenI was in the quality of the labor market: a good part of the German workers work less hours a week in part -time jobs, but they did it for more years than the Spanish workers. And now the OECD has arrived to put Germany In its place. Labor identity crisis. Germany, traditionally associated with discipline and productivity, faces a paradox today: According to the OECDis the developed country where Less hours work per year, just 1,331 against The 1,898 of Greece or the 1,716 of Portugal. The situation involves a symbolic blow to a country that just a decade ago imposed austerity policies to the countries of the South, stigmatizing them as little workers. The fall in the workload is combined with a economic deterioration Palpable: unemployment has overcome three million people For the first time in a decade, the economy has contracted for two consecutive years and GDP is already less than in 2019, while Spain and Greece grow at rhythms over 2%. The debate on work. We have gone counting. The reduction of hours worked has become on central theme In German politics. Chancellor Friedrich Merz warns that with four -day work weeks and an excess of emphasis on the “vital balance” will not sustain the prosperity of the country. The data They are striking: German workers enjoy holidays longer than the legal minimum, numerous festivities and an average of 19 medical casualties a year, in front of 16 before the pandemic, a change that experts attribute more to culture than to health. Scandals like that of a teacher in Baja since 2009 charging full salary They have reinforced the perception that labor laxity is unsustainable. The roots of the phenomenon. They counted In the Washington Post that specialists argue that it is not a laziness, but rather of structural barriers. Almost half of German women work part -time, figure that exceeds 65% In the case of mothers, which translates into one of the greatest full -time equivalent employment gaps of the entire EU. Historical factors also weigh: in Western Germany, working mothers were stigmatized Like “Cuervo Mothers”while in the east, under the socialist model, full -time employment was promoted with nurseries from an early age. Today cultural differences persist and a child care system with short schedules that prevents many families from holding full -time jobs. Proposals and resistances. The experts They coincide in which to expand the nurseries and extend their schedules would be decisive, but the technical solutions collide with the policy. Changing the tax declaration to individual system could add the equivalent to half a million jobs full time, but is perceived as “anti-family” and is difficult to approve. For their part, entrepreneurs They claim Less bureaucracy and more immigrationwhile some researchers advocate simple reforms that release hidden work hours. However, government responses have been considered shy and insufficient, and the feeling of postponement persists. The four -day elephant. Paradoxically, while political leaders ask for more work, there are more and more companies that rehearse with shorter jobs. In 2024, 45 companies tested the four -day With equal salaries and reduced hours, with Positive results: Greater productivity per hour and more satisfied employees. Most of these firms plan to keep the model, consolidating the trend in favor of free time. Thus, Germany moves Between two poles: a productive system that suffers stagnation and presses to extend days, and a society that values life more and more outside of work, drawing a clash of visions that puts into play not only the economy, but the identity of the country. Image | International Tr In Xataka | The myth says that Germans work more than the Spaniards. The data tell a different thing In Xataka | Some researchers have analyzed the working day in Spain: the same thing that 40 years ago is worked, but in worse jobs
