"While Americans cling to their hybrid schedules to have some flexibility with their jobs, workers in the Netherlands have quietly abandoned the five-day workweek, working an average of 32.1 hours in 2024. And the country's staffers have women to thank for the change. The new work standard could help keep people in the labor force, as working women in the U.S. have dropped out in droves amid RTO pushes."
"Workers in the Netherlands between the ages of 20 and 64 worked an average of 32.1 hours per week in 2024, according to data from Eurostat. The country has the highest rate of shorter workweeks in Europe, followed by Austria, Germany and Denmark, all with around 34-hour workweeks. In contrast, Americans employed full-time worked an average of 42.9 hours weekly in 2024, according to a Gallup poll -and that's actually an improvement from 2019, when U.S. staffers clocked in 44.1 hours weekly."
"There's a primary reason why the Dutch have quietly shifted to a four-day workweek: women. After their entrance into the workforce, things would never be the same. Like many other nations around the world, the Netherlands used to operate on a male-centered working model that placed men as the breadwinners. The weeks were longer, more similar to America's traditional 40-hour workweek-but then women started to join the labor force in part time roles starting in the 1980s."
Workers aged 20 to 64 in the Netherlands averaged 32.1 hours per week in 2024, the shortest average in Europe. Austria, Germany and Denmark follow with around 34-hour workweeks. Americans employed full-time averaged 42.9 hours weekly in 2024, down from 44.1 in 2019. Over a third of employed people in the EU worked nearly 40 to 45 hours weekly. The Netherlands' shorter workweek emerged as women entered the labor force in part-time roles beginning in the 1980s, shifting away from a male-centered breadwinner model and reducing average weekly hours.
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