The chart here shows average working hours since 1870 for a selection of countries that industrialized early. You can add or remove countries by clicking ‘Edit countries and regions’ on the chart.
We show annual totals, so the trends account for changes in both the length of working days as well as the number of days worked through the year. The data comes from research by the economic historians Michael Huberman and Chris Minns, who have brought together evidence from historical records, National Accounts data, and other sources.1
The chart shows that average working hours declined dramatically for workers in early-industrialized economies over the last 150 years. In 1870, workers in most of these countries worked more than 3,000 hours annually — equivalent to a grueling 60–70 hours each week for 50 weeks per year.
But we see that today those extreme working hours have been roughly cut in half. In Germany, for example, annual working hours decreased by nearly 60% — from more than 3,000 hours in the late 19th century to less than 1,500 hours in the 2010s — and in the UK the decrease was around 40%. Before this revolution in working hours, people worked as many hours between January and July as we work today in an entire year.