A huge number of South Africans are working 50 hour weeks – this is how we compare to the rest of the world
For many South Africans, working long hours is the norm, with employers expecting their employees to put in time beyond the legislated 45 hours a week.
But data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) shows that, while South Africans do put in the extra hours – there are many other countries who work much harder.
The latest statistics for South Africa (2017) shows that a significant portion of our labour force of 16.4 million works more than 49 hours a week (22% – or about 3.7 million people). However, the majority of workers still fall into the 40-48 hour range.
This range is in line with South African labour laws, which puts the maximum normal working time allowed at 45 hours weekly – or nine hours per day – and is the most common range for workers around the world.
This is true for both men and women in South Africa – though the data shows that more men (26%) than women (16%) tend to work past the regulated amount (49 hours+), while women are also more likely to work half-days (11%), compared to men in South Africa (6%).
South Africa’s working hours
| Working hours | Men | Women | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| No hours | 1.4% | 2.4% | 1.8% |
| 1 to 14 hours | 1.9% | 3.1% | 2.4% |
| 15 to 29 hours | 5.6% | 11.3% | 8.1% |
| 30 to 34 hours | 3.1% | 4.4% | 3.7% |
| 35 to 39 hours | 3.6% | 6.2% | 4.7% |
| 40 to 48 hours | 58.3% | 56.3% | 57.4% |
| 49 hours or more | 26.0% | 16.4% | 21.8% |
South Africa vs the world
According to the ILO’s data, about 400 million of the world’s 1.8 billion workers push past 49 hours a week while working – a global rate of around 22%.
Of the 60 countries that the ILO has data for from 2017, South Africa ranks 18th overall for having the highest proportion of its workforce working more than 49 hours, falling almost exactly in-line with the global rate.
Bangladesh has the highest proportion of workers who work those hours, with more than half (50.4%) of its workforce putting in 49+ hours a week.
This is followed by Myanmar (47.6%), Laos (43.6%) and Mongolia (37.4%). The table below outlines the top 20.
| Country | Workforce | % working 49 hours or more |
|---|---|---|
| Bangladesh | 60.8 million | 50.4% |
| Myanmar | 21.9 million | 47.6% |
| Loas | 1.8 million | 43.7% |
| Mongolia | 1.2 million | 37.4% |
| Turkey | 28.2 million | 33.1% |
| Peru | 12.4 million | 32.1% |
| El Salvador | 2.8 million | 31.0% |
| Vietnam | 53.7 million | 31.0% |
| Indonesia | 122.8 million | 30.6% |
| Costa Rica | 2.0 million | 29.7% |
| Republic of Korea | 26.7 million | 29.0% |
| Brunei Darussalam | 187,000 | 28.3% |
| Mexico | 52.3 million | 28.3% |
| Belize | 150,000 | 28.0% |
| UAE | 7.2 million | 27.1% |
| Jamaica | 1.2 million | 25.0% |
| Philippines | 40.3 million | 22.8% |
| South Africa | 16.4 million | 21.8% |
| Palestine | 1.0 million | 21.3% |
| Argentina | 11.6 million | 20.3% |
However, studies and various reports have shown that long working hours aren’t necessarily a good thing, nor an indication of productivity or success.
Many Scandinavian nations, which often rank of some of the happiest, most productive countries in the world, hardly make a blip when it comes to workers working long hours.
Just under 7% of Sweden’s workforce put in more than 49 hours a week – and Denmark’s rate is note much higher at 7.3%.
But at the bottom reaches of the rankings, places like Bulgaria, Lithuania and Latvia have under 3% of their workforces working beyond 49 hours a week, while Romania, Norway and Hungary have under 6% of their workforce putting in those hours.
BRICS
Among the BRICS nations, only South Africa, Brazil and Russia feature in the ILO dataset.
Here, South Africa has the highest proportion of workers working more than 49 hours a week, with Brazil having 11.3% of its population in that group, and Russia with one of the lowest at 2.8% (using 2016 data, the latest available).
Data for China and India, which have the largest workforces in the world, were unavailable.
Read: South Africans are some of the hardest workers in the world
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