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Albanians work the longest hours in Europe, but get paid the least! Here's the country with the shortest work week
2025-05-01 16:52:13 / EKONOMI&SOCIALE
In the European Union, in 2023, working-age people aged 20-64 worked an average of 36.1 hours per week, according to Eurostat.
This number refers to the hours that people actually worked in their main job in the reference week.
Average weekly working hours vary across EU countries. Those with the longest working weeks were Greece (39.8 hours), Romania (39.5), Poland (39.3) and Bulgaria (39.0).
In contrast, the Netherlands had the shortest working week (32.2 hours), followed by Austria (33.6) and Germany (34.0).
Albanians work the longest hours in Europe
INSTAT data shows that Albanians work longer hours than anyone else in Europe. In 2023, salaried employees worked an average of 43.7 hours per week, or 7.6 hours more than the European average.
The longest hours are in manufacturing (46.5), agriculture (44.8) and construction (45.6) and the lowest in administration (40).
Turkey ranks after Albania with 43.1 hours.
The Balkans generally work longer hours. In Montenegro, employees work 42.8 hours a week, in Serbia 41.3, in Bosnia 41.2 and in North Macedonia almost 40 hours.
Although Albanians stay in the job longer, they are paid less than everyone else, with both the minimum and average wages being the lowest in the region (no data for Kosovo).
Employed persons by average current working hours
In the EU, in 2023, 37.1% of employees worked on average between 40 and 44.5 hours per week, while only 7.1% recorded less than 20 hours of actual work per week in their main job.
The 40-44.5 range of actual working hours represents the largest share in most countries – with the exception of Ireland, Finland, Belgium, France and Denmark, where the majority of employees were in the 35-39.5 average working hours per week range.
The same hour range (40 to 44.5) also shows the largest differences between countries.
The highest percentages were recorded in Bulgaria (82.2%), Romania (80.2%) and Latvia (77.7%). The lowest percentages were found in Belgium (16.1%), France (13.3%) and Denmark (10.6%)./ Monitor
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