If the legal working time in France is 35 hours per week, some employees do not hesitate to accumulate overtime.
According to a Eurostat study, 7% of European workers in 2022 exceeded the threshold of 49 hours per week, i.e. 9h48 per day (Monday to Friday).
Among the hardest workers are the self-employed.
About 30% of them worked the 49 hours in 2022, compared to 4% among employees.
They are then 28% among qualified employees to work long hours in addition, in particular in agriculture, forestry and fishing.
Finally, executives are 24% to work more than 9h48 daily.
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Greece and France at the top of the ranking
There are, however, disparities between the countries of the European Union.
Greek employees reach first place in the ranking with 13% of them working more than 40 hours per week.
The average is then 10.2% in France - against 10% in 2021 - and 9.7% in Cyprus.
Italy, Portugal and Belgium have a rate of 9% of workers crossing the 49-hour threshold.
Spain and Switzerland follow them, at 7% each, followed by Germany and its 6%.
The lowest rates - and therefore the workers working the least overtime - are found in Eastern Europe, such as Bulgaria, Lithuania and Latvia.
