Politics

Jeb Bush says Americans ‘need to work longer.’ But should they?

Should Americans work more hours? AP Photo/John Locher, File

By Nik DeCosta-Klipa @NikDeCostaKlipa

July 9, 2015

2 minutes to read

While campaigning in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Jeb Bush swung by Manchester’s Union Leader to talk about his ideas for the country, including his plan to achieve 4 percent economic growth:

“We have to be a lot more productive,’’ Bush said. “Workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and through their productivity gain more income for their families. That’s the only way we are going to get out of this rut that we’re in.’’

Bush is right about workforce participation, but is he right about Americans needing to work longer hours?

Americans already work a lot, especially compared to our international peers.

The average work week of employed adults in the U.S. was 47 hours, reported Gallup last August. Nearly two in every five of those surveyed reported working over 50 hours a week. Eighteen percent worked more than 60 hours a week.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the U.S. was 11 of 36 OECD countries when it came to employees working very long hours and 32 of 36 in time devoted to leisure and personal care (the only countries with less were Turkey, Mexico, Poland, and Canada).

Working longer hours “may impair personal health, jeopardise (sic) safety and increase stress,’’ the report said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have an entire portion of their website devoted to warning of the health risk of working long hours.

Of the 21 “rich countries,’’ the United States is also the only one that doesn’t require employers to provide paid vacation time, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, while four to six vacation weeks is the minimum required across Europe.

Additionally, working longer hours actually hurts productivity.

A Stanford study found that “employee output falls sharply after a 50-hour work-week, and falls off a cliff after 55 hours—so much so that someone who puts in 70 hours produces nothing more with those extra 15 hours.’’

A recent editorial in The New York Times suggested combining a 30-hour work week with increased wages to combat unemployment, carbon emissions, inequality, and general low well-being.

In France, despite — or perhaps because of — the 35-hour maximum work week, workers were more productive per hour than their hard-working American counterparts, Business Insider reported.

After receiving flack from opponents, Bush walked back his comments somewhat on Thursday. Again, he’s partially right — part-timers do want more hours. But that doesn’t mean all Americans need to, or should.