Does American Society Overvalue Work?

Do the values and expectations of American society overvalue work?

    According to a study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Americans are working longer than ever before. The OECD’s results clearly showed that Americans aged fifteen to sixty-four worked fifty percent more than the French, Germans, and Italians (Prescott 2). This inequality in work hours has been around for decades and is only becoming more noticeable as time rolls on. Many questions and arguments exist debating what should be done to correct the issue. Because American society values a strong work ethic, many Americans overwork themselves to meet society’s expectations.

    Currently there are several theories explaining why this trend

occurs. One of the top theories believes the high work rate has to do with America’s income tax rate. Economists blame income taxes for the variation when looking for the difference in American and European economies; moreover, the United States has a higher income tax rate than most European countries which economists believe correlates with more work. However, others believe the work rates are due to a low quantity of paid vacation time. Compared to European countries, the United States has both fewer paid vacation days as well as no minimum standard. Nevertheless, another theory states it is just Americans’ tendency to work long hours. The society of America has taught citizens that work is highly valued and the expectations of society should be met at all costs.  Even though each theory is different, they all ask one question: Do the values and expectations of American society overvalue work?
    To begin with, are Americans really working too much? According to economists and professors Alesina, Glaeser, and Sacerdote ‘the US has by far the longest number of weeks of work per year, is second after Greece for numbers of hours worked in the normal week and it is sixth in terms of employment over population” (149). Moreover, Americans work “50 percent more than do the French, Germans, or Italians”  who are 10% more productive than Americans (Prescott 2). This difference however did not appear overnight. As a matter of fact, “our society has been tipping the scale towards work… since the 1950s. Time spent on the job has increased by 163 hours per year over the last twenty years” (qtd.  in Clark 13). As can be seen, Americans work much more than many other countries; furthermore, the gap in work hours increases every year only widening the rift of work hours.
    Now that it has been established that Americans do in fact work too much, is that such a bad thing? Working too long has been associated with several detrimental effects to both physical and mental health. For instance, a British study researching the correlation between long working hours and cancer found “observational evidence suggests that working longer than recommended hours is linked to many behavioral cancer risk factors, such as excessive alcohol intake and physical inactivity” which may in the long run indirectly increase cancer risk (Long Working Hours and Cancer Risk 1). There is a similar “increased incidence of coronary heart disease, pre-term delivery, and, in manual occupations, type 2 diabetes” (Long Working Hours and Cancer Risk 1). Given these points, working hours longer than recommended is, in the long run, destructive to the worker’s physical health.
    Additionally, working long hours can be detrimental to one’s mental health. A British study found working more hours than recommended shows “a high prevalence of anxiety, depression, sleeping difficulties, and accidental injuries at work” (Long Working Hours and Cancer Risk 1). Similarly, evidence suggests working long hours actually decreases productivity in the long run (Clark 14). Notably, the reason why many employees work longer hours is to in fact increase productivity. In reality overworking not only increases incidence in cancer risk factors and other health risks, but it also decreases productivity and sound mental health.
    Now it is time to accordingly explore the income tax theory. This theory proposes that it is in fact America’s income taxation rate which causes American citizens to overwork. The United States taxes its citizens based on seven brackets of income. The highest bracket correspondingly receives a 39.6% income tax (2016 Federal Tax Rates 4). Furthermore, out of 188 countries around the world the United States has the third highest tax rate which is loftier than the worldwide average of 22.5% (Pomerleau and Potosky 1). This information suggests that at least “one-half of the hours worked difference between the US and Europe can be explained by differences in tax rates” (et al. Alesina 151). Because of the high income tax rate, Americans are forced to work more in order to receive the desired amount of money. Consequently, Americans find themselves working more hours and weeks per year than many European countries in order to receive the same amount.
    With the first theory in mind it is now time to examine the second. The second theory suggests that it is in fact the vast gap between European and American paid vacation time which compels Americans to work such long hours. It is important to realize that “Germany and Italy have the two highest number of vacation weeks with 7.8 and 7.9 respectively. The UK has 6.6 and the US 3.9: according to OECD data the US has twenty fewer days of vacation and holiday than Italy and Germany and fifteen fewer than France” (et al. Alesina 150). This variation is due mostly to the fact that the United States has no statutory minimum. Workers only acquire more vacation by working longer at their place of employment. For instance, according to the Economic Policy Institute, employees working “for a year or more receive, on average, 8.9 days of vacation. After 10 years of employment workers receive just over three weeks of vacation. Vacation leave approaches four weeks after 25 years of service” (Allegretto 2). This hard earned four weeks of vacation is still several weeks short of numerous European countries. As has been noted, the relatively low quantity of vacation days is due to the lack of a statutory minimum. Americans must correspondingly work longer because they have fewer days to take leave therefore forcing Americans to overwork themselves.
    Another key theory is that of societal values. This third theory proclaims it is the values of the American society which forces Americans to meet the elevated expectations of society. Daniel T. Rogers, receiver of the bancroft prize, illustrates in his book The Work Ethic in Industrial America how closely tied Americans are to work. Rogers elaborates “active occupation is not only [Americans’] principal source of happiness, and the foundation of their national greatness, but they also are absolutely wretched without it” (5). In a like manner, American celebrities put emphasis on good work ethic. For example, in Richard Nixon’s Address to the Nation on Labor Day, he accentuates the “inner drive” of the “American workingman” known as “competitive spirit” and considers it “immoral to be lazy or slothful” (par. 5). In a similar fashion, the fictional celebrity Rosie the Riveter promoted a strong work ethic in American women during World War II. Many other celebrities have also established that working long hours is the societal norm and not meeting this expectation is frowned upon by both celebrities and the average American.
    There are several alternatives to working longer than recommended hours.

For instance, one way is to either increase paid vacation hours or create a national standard. Increasing the number of vacation hours an employee receives would allot more time off of the job to the employee  thus decreasing the number of hours the employee works. Creating a statutory minimum number of vacation days would similarly increase vacation and help start to decrease societal expectations of working long hours. However, the economic effects of this solution have not been researched in detail and will need more research before going into effect. In either case, the exact amount of vacation time would need to be ironed out; however, there are several countries in Europe which America could model its system after. By increasing vacation time, employees would be more productive because they would have time to recharge and may even be less stressed.

    Another method to decrease overworking would be to lower the income tax rate. By lowering the income tax rate, Americans would get more out of their income. Consequently, Americans will be able to work less hours in order to retain the same amount of money as before. This in turn will encourage Americans to work less. On the other hand, the government will receive less revenue and budget portions may suffer because of this. A decreased income tax may correspondingly decrease longer than recommended working hours but will also decrease government

revenue.
    Two other solutions to decrease long working hours include telecommuting and flextime. Telecommuting is when an employee works from home. This not only saves costs in the office, parking, travel, and gas; but in moderate amounts also increases productivity while decreasing stress and sickness (Russell 2). Although this may be true, telecommuting creates the “potential for employees to shirk duties,” potential security concerns, loss of morale and on-site brainstorming, as well as employee isolation (Russell 3).  Flextime on the other hand is the ability of an employee to schedule work and life around each other. This allows employees to put their life before work which can increase productivity and decrease stress. However, flextime may decrease brainstorming and morale by combining work and home (Lucas 5). Similarly, it may prevent some employees from receiving a raise because “many managers see early birds as harder workers than their late arriving coworkers” (Russell 6). By creating a flexible telecommute schedule employees would receive brief amounts of telecommuting they could schedule flexibly around their life thus reducing the need to overwork. This combination of telecommuting and flextime would produce the best of both worlds; employees would still obtain office time for brainstorming but will still be able to work from home when they need to.
All in all, America is up to date on many issues; however, there are still some issues which need to be solved.

One of which is that Americans overvalue work and are therefore working much longer than many other countries. There are many different solutions which can be applied either individually or as a group to fix the American work schedule. By implementing flexible schedules, telecommuting, and longer vacation hours, the American economy will prosper due to increased productivity and healthier employees. Reducing the tax rate, however, will not fix this issue in the long run. Instead, it will only reduce government revenue which will cause some budget categories to be neglected. All in all, it will be difficult to change a societal value, but, to fix this issue, America must take it one step at a time and put its citizens before

profit.