The average workweek in Germany last year was about 34 hours , according to Eurostat data, less than France and Greece as well as the average across the European Union, which was 36 hours. In addition, German labor productivity per hour has also been essentially flat since 2009.

A study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reports that Germans work the least among its member countries, clocking in at 1,335 hours per person per year in 2023, compared to 1,496 hours in the U.K. and 1,805 hours in the U.S.

In response, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germans need to work harder to make the economy more productive, as it hasn’t grown much in the past five years.

“We must, in this country, work more again and, above all, more efficiently,” he said in May. “It is no

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