The number of hours worked in a week has increased in the United States by about half a percent each year with 1,716 hours in 1967 and 1,878 hours in the year 2000 according to Juliet Schor the Author of The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure (2008). This increase, she claims, is due to the rise in weekly work hours and an increase in the number of days spent working each year (2008). Schor also discussed how an increase in productivity should lead to less work week hours, however, the opposite effect is seen. Instead of increased productivity causing a reduction in the hours of the average worker, it instead the hours related to an increased economy and demand. While this economic growth has certainly benefited the lives of many, the author discusses how a reduction in work week hours would give people more time to interact with their family and communities as well as “making up for our chronic national sleep deficit” (2008). Beyond a chronic sleep deficit, there are many adverse health effects related to a greater number of work week hours. The purpose of this paper is to examine the health effects of longer workweek hours, in a cultural comparison between Latin America and the United States of America.
Adverse Health Effects An increase in work week hours has been associated with many detrimental health
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A higher level of satisfaction has been associated with less stress and less detrimental health effects. Valente & Berry (2015), conducted research to analyze the life satisfaction seen among both U.S. Americans and Latin Americans. While the difference in work hours, as discussed above, may not cause a difference in health related to workplace exposure, there is a significant difference in the happiness and life satisfaction among Latin American workers and U.S. American