Indian employees work longest, paid least globally, says report

Indians are among the most overworked workers across the world and earn the lowest minimum statutory wage in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Bangladesh, according to a report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Let us dig deeper into the report.

1. India at 5th spot

The paper titled, Global Wage Report 2020-21:  Wages and Minimum Wages in the Time of COVID-19' positions India at the 5th spot globally among countries with long working hours.

The study adds that amongst the Indian workforce, it's the well-paid workers, both salaried and self-employed, who work more. It notes that salaried workers in urban areas work more than their rural counterparts.

The report states that the working hours in India can extend up to 48 hours a week adding that only Qatar, Mongolia, Gambia, and Maldives have average working hours longer than in India. Meanwhile, data from the 2018-19 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) also shows that better-paid workers in cities work longer than their rural counterparts in India.

Men put in longer hours at work than women in both rural and urban areas, while for both of them, the work hours are longer in urban areas.

In 2019, India carried out its first time-use survey in two decades, which also found similar trends. Meanwhile, the ILO report further assesses that an average worker in China works 46 hours a week, 37 hours in the US, and 36 hours in the UK and Israel. The estimates are deduced from 2019 assessments undertaken by national agencies, whilst data for some nations pertains to previous years.