Austria's working hours drops dramatically - minister demands rethinking!

Austria's working hours drops dramatically - minister demands rethinking!

Österreich, Land - Minister of Economics Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer (ÖVP) emphasized in a current statement that Austria is European champion in reducing the working hours worked. According to Hattmannsdorfer, Austria is in the final field compared to other EU countries, when it comes to the weekly working hours. While the average weekly working time in Greece is around 41 hours, this is only 33.8 hours in Austria. This number is particularly noteworthy because it was reduced by around 10 percent compared to 2008, when the weekly working hours were still 37.8 hours. With this decline, Austria represents the highest value among the EU countries.

In the context of the entire EU space, the average weekly working time of 37.7 hours in 2008 was reduced to 35.8 hours. Hattmannsdorfer described these developments as an alarming signal and calls for a social change in the attitude to work performance. He emphasizes that incentives in particular have to be created in order to increase the willingness to perform. While he explains to people with care obligations, he demands more to work from other employees.

comparison of working hours in the EU

A look at the EU-wide working hours shows that Germany has an average weekly working time of 35.1 hours in 2023, which is below the EU average of 37.1 hours. In the EU, Greece and the Netherlands record the highest and lowest average working hours, each with 40.9 hours or 33.1 hours. In the Netherlands, this low working time is also due to a high part -time quota of 39.0 %, which explains the lowest average weekly working hours in the EU.

For full -time workers in the EU, there is a picture that shows that they work on average 40.4 hours a week. In Germany, this value is 40.3 hours. An interesting point is that the average working time of full -time workers in the EU has dropped from 41.3 to 40.4 hours between 2013 and 2023, which reflects a general trend to reduce working hours.

social effects and demands

The increasing number of part -time livelihoods in the EU who worked an average of 22.5 hours in 2023 shows that more people make use of flexible working models. In Germany, on the other hand, it was 22.1 hours. This context also shows a gender gap: women in the EU worked for 39.4 hours, while men had 41.2 hours. These differences are different in different countries.

Hattmannsdorfer continues to comment on the deletion of public holidays and rather would like to increase the number of hours worked to increase Austria's competitiveness. In view of the current developments in the labor market, his demand for a higher willingness to perform could be decisive for the future economic development of the country in view of the falling number of working hours.