The Power Index

The 10 Countries Where People Work the Most Hours

The OECD updated its annual hours database in June. Colombia leads at 2,219 hours per worker per year. Germany sits at the bottom with 1,331. The gap between them is 888 hours — 111 eight-hour days.

Source: OECD, Average annual hours actually worked per worker, 2024 data (updated June 7, 2026). Hours per employed person, including part-time.

Greece at #5. Greek workers put in 1,898 hours last year — 102 more than the average American. The country that Europe spent a decade calling fiscally reckless works longer hours than 33 of 38 nations the OECD tracks. Greece has consistently ranked near the top of the OECD for hours worked.

The United States at #8 is the other standout. At 1,796 hours, Americans work 60 more hours a year than the OECD average — more than Japanese workers, more than the British. Among G7 nations, only the U.S. cracks the top 10. That is not a fact most Americans would guess.

The pattern running through most of the top 10 is clear. These are largely middle-income countries. More hours, less output per hour. Mexico produces $25 of GDP per hour worked. Germany produces $94. Germany works about 40% fewer hours and generates 2.3 times more economic output per worker.

Colombia and Mexico at the top. More than half the Mexican workforce — 54.5% as of early 2025 — is informal. Street vendors, small workshops, day labor. These jobs don't come with contracts or fixed schedules. They come with long days and thin margins. When you measure hours across all workers, informality pushes the average up.

Germany at the bottom is structural too. About 30% of German workers are part-time, and the OECD counts them. The Netherlands is even higher, at 39%. When a country builds its labor market around shorter contracts, strong unions, and generous leave, the annual figure drops. Germany averaged 25.6 hours a week in 2024. That is just over five hours a day.

South Korea tells the reform story. In 2015, it logged 2,083 hours — near the top. Then Seoul capped the workweek at 52 hours. By 2024, the number was 1,865. A drop of 218 hours in nine years. South Korea went from #2 to #7. Policy works.

888 hours

The gap between Colombia and Germany. That is 111 eight-hour working days — roughly five months of a standard schedule.

$93.81

Germany's GDP per hour worked. The country that works the fewest hours in the OECD ranks 10th in the world for productivity per hour.

218 hours

South Korea's decline in annual hours since 2015. The 52-hour weekly cap moved Korea from #2 to #7 in nine years.

54.5%

Share of Mexico's workforce in informal employment. Long hours and thin margins. More than half the labor force has no contract.

39%

Part-time employment rate in the Netherlands. The Dutch work 1,445 hours a year — and produced $94 of GDP per hour in 2023. Fewer hours, more output.

Chile passed a 40-hour workweek law in 2023, phasing in through 2028. It logged 1,919 hours in 2024, still at #4. If the reform bites the way South Korea's did, Chile could drop out of the top 10 within a few years. We'll be watching.

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