By NAOMI LARKIN AND NZPA
Working too hard?
Not according to an international survey which ranks South Koreans as the world's leading workaholics.
Although New Zealand was not included in the survey of 32 countries, Statistics New Zealand figures showed that the average Kiwi clocked up 38.23 hours in paid work a week, placing the country well down the list.
The survey of about 1000 people aged 13 to 65 carried out by New York-based market research firm Roper Starch Worldwide found South Koreans worked an average of 55.1 hours a week.
Turks scored second place at 54.1 hours a week, followed by Argentinians, who worked 53.5 hours and Taiwanese, who put in 53.4 hours.
New Zealand was well behind the British at 41.9 hours and the Italians (40.5 hours) and French (40.3).
The survey found that men around the world logged up nearly four hours more a week than women - in paid work. New Zealand men notched up 40.14 hours a week compared with 36.04 hours by women.
Although this appears to put New Zealanders well down the league table of hard work, there is no cause for concern because economic productivity and hours of work are not the same thing, says Associate Professor Marie Wilson, head of the University of Auckland's management and employment relations department.
"Many countries put in long hours but aren't terribly productive. A lot of the countries that they are quoting are heavily into labour-intensive forms of manufacturing and don't have a lot of women in the paid workforce, which are going to distort the statistics," she said.
There was an international argument about how much time people should spend at work because there were high social costs in terms of the family and health consequences.
A Statistics New Zealand spokesman said that approximately 60 per cent of men's work was paid, but almost 70 per cent of women's work was unpaid, including housework, caregiving, shopping and voluntary work outside the home.
Peter Conway, economist for the Council of Trade Unions, said average figures could obscure different trends. In some sectors of the workforce working hours at senior level had lengthened during the past 10 years, whereas other areas had been hit by greater casualisation and increased part-time work.
The survey found people in developed Asian countries worked the longest hours, with an average 49.4- hour week.
Work? We're taking it easy
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