Balancing the clock: How Europe works and rests

Figure 4 shows the average collectively agreed normal weekly working hours in the chemicals sector in 2024. There is a difference of almost two hours between EU13 and EU14 countries. In France, the average working week is 35.5 hours and in Denmark and Cyprus it is 37 hours; they are followed by Finland, Italy, Norway and Slovakia, all with 37.5 hours. Croatia, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Sweden match the statutory maximum of 40 hours a week. The average working week in Austria, Belgium and Spain is close to the EU27 average of 38.2 hours.

Figure 5 shows the average collectively agreed normal weekly working hours in the metalworking sector in 2024. Germany and France have the shortest working weeks, with 35.3 and 36.0 hours, respectively, while 9 Member States – Croatia, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden – match the statutory maximum of 40 hours a week. The gap between the EU13 and the EU14 was 2.2 hours in 2024 which amounts to more than 2.5 weeks of work over a full year in the EU13.

Figure 6 shows the average collectively agreed normal weekly hours in the banking sector in 2024. Workers in the banking sector in the EU13 are supposed to work, on average, 2.2 hours more a week than in the EU14. Among EU14 countries, the working week is shorter than the EU27 average of 37.8 hours, although 4 EU14 countries’ working weeks are longer (Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Sweden). Belgium and Portugal have the shortest working weeks in the sector (35 hours), followed by France (35.2 hours), the Netherlands (36 hours), and Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Greece and Spain (37 hours). At 40 hours, Croatia, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania and Slovenia have the longest working weeks in the sector.

In 2024, the average collectively agreed normal working week for the retail sector was 38.6 hours in the EU27 (Figure 7), the longest working week among the sectors analysed. In the EU14, the average weekly working hours for retail workers stood at 38.1 hours. The longest agreed weekly hours in the retail sector in the EU14 were recorded in Italy, Greece and Luxembourg (40 hours) and in Portugal (39.9 hours). The shortest working weeks were in France (35.9 hours) and Belgium (36.7 hours). In the EU13, the average working week in retail was 39.9 hours, nearly two hours longer than in the EU14. Cyprus, with an average working week of 38 hours, is the only country in the EU13 with a working week shorter than the EU27 average.

The public administration sector is distinct from the sectors discussed previously because the state and public institutions are the main employers. In many Member States, working time is unilaterally defined by the state and hence regulated by legislation (Eurofound, 2016). In 2024, the average collectively agreed weekly working time in public administration stood at 37.7 hours in the EU27, 36.9 hours in the EU14 and 39.8 hours in the EU13 (Figure 8). The shortest working weeks are in France, Ireland and Portugal (35 hours), followed by Spain (35.8 hours), and Italy and the Netherlands (36 hours).

An important factor in the overall length of working time each year is paid annual leave. The Working Time Directive states that ‘Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that every worker is entitled to paid annual leave of at least four weeks’, which ‘may not be replaced by an allowance in lieu’. In Figure 9, leave is expressed in days and harmonised based on a five-day working week. The majority of countries – 19 out of the 28 studied – have a 20-day minimum entitlement, as set out in the Working Time Directive. This group includes Belgium, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands, as well as most of the EU13, except Malta. In Austria, Denmark, France and Sweden, the statutory minimum duration of paid leave is 25 days, while in Portugal and Spain it is 22 days. In Luxembourg, the minimum duration of paid annual leave is 26 days. In Malta, the basic minimum duration of paid annual leave is 24 working days plus the equivalent to make up for the days of leave lost when public holidays occur on a weekend (in 2024, the total was 30 days).

The statutory minimum duration of paid annual leave is, in many cases, the basis on which workers’ actual leave entitlement is defined. The total number of annual leave days may depend on a number of factors, such as the type of occupation, sector or years of service. In many cases, it is defined in collective agreements. Figure 9 includes the estimates of the days exceeding the statutory annual leave days based on the collectively agreed minimum paid annual leave days, where these are available. In Bulgaria, according to the National Institute for Conciliation and Arbitration, collective agreements provide workers with an average of 24 days of paid annual leave. In Cyprus, an average of 21 days is estimated based on the most relevant sectoral and company-level collective agreements. In Romania, collective agreements usually provide for more days of paid annual leave than the 20 statutory days, depending on the employee’s years of service. In Greece, the duration of paid annual leave also depends on seniority and is longer (24 days) for those working six days a week. The available data in Czechia, Finland and Italy show that, on average, collective agreements provide 5 days of leave a year on top of the 20 days set by law. In the Netherlands, workers who are covered by collective agreements may also have more days of paid annual leave than the 20 days provided by legislation. With an average of 30 days, Denmark, France and Germany have the longest collectively agreed paid leave allowances – well above their respective amounts of statutory leave.

Using an annual timescale and accounting for other important elements, such as leave and public holidays, provides a more complete picture of how many hours workers are supposed to work each year. The resulting annual figures represent how many hours the average full-time worker in each country should work according to the legislation and collective agreements in place. They do not consider factors such as overtime work, other forms of time off or leave (such as sick leave or parental/maternity/paternity leave) or exceptional reductions in normal working time, such as due to short-time working. Table 1 shows details of the calculation of the average collectively agreed normal annual working time. The number of public holidays in 2024 (excluding those falling on Sundays) varied significantly by country, from 8 days in Denmark and the Netherlands, to as many as 16 days in Cyprus and 13 in Croatia, Finland, Greece, Lithuania and Romania. The average number of public holidays in the EU27 was 10.2, with the EU13 having more days on average (12 days) than the EU14 (10 days). In 2024, the average collectively agreed normal annual working time was approximately 1,722 hours in the EU27, 1,689 hours in the EU14 and 1,805 hours in the EU13 (Table 1). This means that, according to the collectively agreed normal working time, the average worker in the EU13 has worked 116 hours longer than the average worker in the EU14 – the equivalent of nearly 3 working weeks in the EU13. Overall, Estonia (where collective bargaining does not play a substantial role in defining working time regulations) had the longest annual working hours in the EU: 1,848. This means that, in 2024, the average worker in Estonia would have worked approximately 273 hours more than the average worker in France – equivalent to nearly 7 weeks of work in Estonia.