Americans work. By some measures, The United States is the most overworked developed nation in the world. It is the only industrialized country without a mandatory option for parental leave. 86 percent of American men and 66 percent of women work more than 40 hours per week.
However, those numbers are for the whole country. When broken down by city, then things get interesting.
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WalletHub ranked American cities and gave each a work score out of 100. It found the hardest-working ones are Anchorage; San Francisco; Irving, Texas; Virginia Beach, Va.; and Plano, Texas.
Atlanta ranks 62nd out of 116 cities. Its work score was 60.47 out of 100.
The bottom five cities were Newark, N.J.; Cleveland, Ohio; Buffalo, N.Y.; Burlington, Vt.; and Detroit, Mich.
The ranking was determined using metrics such as the average work week length, employment rate, share of workers who leave vacation time unused and average commute time.
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James P. DeNicco, a lecturer for the Department of Economics at Rice University, said there were many reasons why the United States works so hard.
“The United States has traditionally been a place that encourages individual/family responsibility for economic well-being,” he said.
He also pointed to America’s lower taxes as a reason to work more.
“Folks are more likely to work one more hour if they can keep 75 percent of their earned income as opposed to 60 percent,” he said.
People feeling overworked might appreciate a New York law against checking emails after work or how "no" could be your magic word at work.
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