Working week: Wanna spend less time in office? Shift to Paris

South Korea has decided to reduce its maximum working week from 68 hours to 52 hours in a week to boost the country's productivity. A look at how other countries are slogging it out

Breaking back
According to the ILO's most recent figures, Asia is a continent where people work for the longest hours. Most of the countries (32%) have no universal national limit for maximum weekly working hours. Meanwhile, 29% countries have high thresholds (60 weekly hours or more). As per an ILO study, 22% of the global workforce are working "excessively" long hours.

The workweek
According to the OECD, Mexicans work the most hours out of any country every year - 2,246 on an average. That's 467 more hours than the average American every year and that too for less than a fifth of the pay.

Paris, je t'aime
European cities top the list of least working hours a week with Paris ranked first. The lower number of hours worked in France reflects a relatively high labour productivity - the amount of goods and services produced per hour of work.

Overworked in Mumbai
According to a recent report by Swiss Bank UBS, employees in developing countries have the longest work hours. Mumbai tops the list of cities with 3,314.7 hours a year.

It's a long day
Worldwide, most professionals are putting in more hours than before. A study says that the work hours especially in the developing countries have gone up by 48%. Some professionals in some industries work much longer hours than the traditional weekly cut of 40 hours, clocking in 10, 12, or even 16 hours straight during a given day.

Indian scene
In India, a salaried individual works 40 hours every week under the generally accepted norm of nine-to-five job schedules-much higher than the average weekly working hours in OECD countries. But it is still better than many major countries.

Work-life imbalance
According to various studies, work-life balance is harder to achieve worldwide. Around 52% of managers globally are working more than 40 hours in a week. Four in 10 employee say their working hours are more than 48 hours in a week.