Hardest Working Countries 2025

In the United States, people often consider “9-to-5” (9am to 5pm) to be the typical office day. Most U.S. workers work an average of 36.1 hours per week. Around the world, however, many people work longer hours. Cultural attitudes, workplace laws and conventions, and socio-economic factors, among other influences, determine the number of hours employees are expected to work. Additionally, some people need to work longer hours to provide for their personal or familial needs. The hardest working countries in the world are not necessarily the wealthiest countries.

Employees who work longer hours do not necessarily earn higher annual wages than those who work shorter hours, even within the same continent, such as Europe. For example, if the average worker in the Netherlands earns $54,262 annually, working 37.3 hours per week, the average worker in Portugal earns only $25,487 working 40.7 hours per week. In terms of sheer hours worked, developing countries tend to outpace developed countries. In fact, several developed countries are experimenting with a 4-day work week with the goal of enabling their citizens to enjoy a healthier work/life balance and avoid becoming overworked.

Top 12 Hardest Working Countries in the World (by actual weekly hours worked per employee, ILOSTAT, 2025)

While employees in several European countries work less than 40 hours per week on average, that is not the case or feasible in other countries worldwide. In the United States, many full-time employees struggle with work-life balance and often forgo vacation time to get more done in the office. However, American workers may be surprised at the average number of hours workers put in in other countries every week.

Top 10 Hardest Working Countries in the OECD (2023)

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental collective of 38 developed and mostly high-income countries, whose collective Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about $64 trillion USD comprised about 60% of the global GDP of about $105 trillion USD in 2023.

1. Peru

Peruvians work harder than workers in any of their fellow OECD member countries, clocking in an average of 2,252 hours per year. As of 2024, Peru’s official legal workweek remains capped at 48 hours, despite government proposals to gradually reduce it to 42 hours by 2026. The Ministry of Labor introduced a staged plan in 2022 to lower the workweek by one hour annually — aiming for 47 hours in 2023 — without affecting pay or benefits. However, the reform has not yet been enacted into law, and implementation remains pending further legislative approval., (L & E Global, 2025).

2. Mexico

Mexico is the second hardest working nation, not far behind Peru. Mexico was the hardest working nation in 2021 at 2,216 hours annually and occupied the second place on the list for 2022 with 2,226 hours. As of 2023, Mexicans work an average of 2,207 hours per year, keeping their country second on the list. Although Mexico has labor laws that limit the workweek to 48 hours per week, enforcement is often inconsistent — especially in the informal sector, which employs more than half of the country’s workforce. While formal employment is subject to legal protections, issues like low wages and limited oversight contribute to longer working hours in practice. Mexico is one of the few countries in the OECD — along with Turkey — that are considered middle-income countries, a distinction that sets them apart from the mostly high-income economies in the organization.

3. Costa Rica

Costa Rica is the third-hardest-working country in the OECD, its employees working an average of 2,171 hours in 2023 – up from 2,149 hours the year before. Because of a high poverty rate and relatively high unemployment, Costa Ricans must often work very long hours to provide for themselves and their families. However, their number of hours worked has decreased from 2016, when workers clocked in 2,204.7 hours in a year—one of the highest numbers of any OECD country in recent years.

4. Chile

On average, Chilean workers clocked in 1,953 hours in 2023, virtually without change from the 1,962 hours in 2022, which was about 158 more than American workers for that year. Despite a legal limit of 45 hours per week, roughly 16% of all workers work more than 50 hours a week. Chile suffers from very high social inequality, with the wealthiest 20% of the population bringing in approximately $31,000 per year and the bottom 20% taking home barely $2,400 annually. In 2023, the government approved labor reforms aimed at gradually reducing the standard workweek to 40 hours by 2027 to improve work-life balance.

5. Greece

Greece is the fifth-hardest-working country in Europe as of 2023, logging an average of 1,897 hours (the non-OECD country Russia placed first in Europe in 2021 with 1,874). The Greek economy was heavily impacted by the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. Greece’s high budget deficit and public debt, combined with huge losses of tax revenues due to systematic tax evasion, caused the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio to skyrocket. This, in turn, wreaked havoc on the country’s national debt level and credit terms and (among other effects) caused the unemployment rate to rise very quickly. Today, Greece appears to be on much more stable financial footing. The unemployment rate was relatively high at 16.3% in 2020, forcing many of those who were employed to work longer hours to make up for unemployed family members’ lost wages. Greece’s unemployment rate has since improved significantly to around 11.2% as of 2023.

6. Israel

On average, Israeli workers put 1,880 hours into their jobs in 2023, only 12 hours less than during the previous year. Israel has a large number of very skilled people in employment who work hard at their jobs. As one of the most innovative countries in the world, Israel is a global leader in the intensity of R&D and has a deep pool of talent in the fields of STEM, research and development, and entrepreneurship.

7. Russia

Russia was the seventh-hardest-working country in the world in 2023. The Russian worker averaged 1,874 hours, just 6 hours below the Israeli counterpart. Russians work about 38 hours per week; workers in some sectors, such as the mining and oil industries, often work more than 40 hours. Russian labor law requires overtime compensation, with higher pay rates for extra hours, but enforcement of these protections can vary across industries and regions.

8. South Korea

South Koreans worked an average of 1,872 hours in 2023, down from 1,901 hours in 2022. Since 2015, this number has gradually decreased from 2,083 hours, partially thanks to the government passing a law requiring workers to take time off. The law is a response to the country’s declining birth rates and productivity and is intended to give people time to start families, improve living standards, and create more jobs.

9. Croatia

Croatians worked an average of 1,837 hours in 2023. While the average workweek is under 40 hours, about 10% of working men work over 50 hours per week. Annual wages are relatively low in Croatia, at an average of just under $22K per year.

10. Malta

The Maltese people put in an average of 1,835 work hours in 2023. The average workweek here is just under 34 hours, and annual wages in Malta are around $27K per year.