It is a central narrative of Friedrich Mertz’s government or at least its Christian Democratic track, as it certainly does not fit as an argument on the classic “friendly” profile trying to maintain the Social Democratic Party. The Germans have to work longer. The Chancellor himself said, reiterated by party secretary Karsten Linnemann and the head of the Parliamentary Group Yen Span. It is presented as a magical solution, something like a panacea for the weak German economy that seems to be unable to detach anything from stagnation.

In fact, the Germans work less than other Europeans, for example the Greeks. According to the Cologne Institute of Economics (IW), which processed OECD data, the Greeks work 136 hours more a year, ie 1,172 against the Germans’ 1,036. However, if compared to the French (1,026 hours) and the Belgians (1,021 hours), they are a little more workers. The most “slave” Europeans, according to the Institute, are the Czechs for 1,326 hours a year and the Poles with 1,304.

Everyone works more

What is striking, however, is that in contrast to the much-discussed picture of the “balance” of work and “rest”, discussions of working hours and occasional “experiments” with four working days a week, everywhere working hours are increasing in the 2013-2023. In Germany, however, only 2%, while in Greece by 21%. This means that the Greeks were forced to “overtake” the Germans in times of work because of the sedimentation and then wage.

Or, as the well -known German journalist Friedrich Coupersbus noticed, this has to do with the fact that many Greeks are forced to do a second job because a salary does not reach them to survive.

However, the increase in hours is something that is more intensified in Eastern European countries (Hungary +24%, Poland +23%) and the South (Spain +15%, Italy +13%). The only country in which the working time decreased over the decade is Austria (-2%).

Why work is not attractive

“We need a framework of conditions under which the expansion of individual working hours will become attractive,” says IW’s labor market issues, Holger Sefer, in Germany in a related article. According to the economist, one major problem has to do with the fact that high taxation of work from one point is a disincentive for more work.

Overall, however, for the country’s economy and the “wealth” produced, the big problem has to do with the fact that more and more people are retiring and this trend will continue. From 2024 onwards there has been a declining course of total working hours in the country and politics will need to find ways to brake this development, as he claims.

Of course, it should not be overlooked that this recording is purely quantitative. That is, it does not measure the efficiency of the work, nor the costs that the intensification of work for many employees may in the medium term. But there are other studies for this.