How Many Hours Does the Average Person Work Per Week? (2024)

4 Min. Read

April 17, 2023

Do you ever feel like you’re spending more time at work than you do at home?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

It has been estimated that the average person will spend one-third of their life at work. That’s roughly 90,000 hours at work over your lifetime.

As a small business owner, it’s a good idea to understand the average hours per week worked. This is so you can set up schedules for your employees that don’t exceed the normal amount which can lead to burnout and low morale.

So how many hours does the average person work per week?

We’ll take a closer look at this and more.

Here’s What We’ll Cover:

How Many Hours Does the Average Person Work Per Week?

Average Hours Per Day

The Importance of Offering a Work/Life Balance

Key Takeaways

How Many Hours Does the Average Person Work Per Week?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks how many hours per week the average American works. This information is then released as a part of the monthly employment summary.

The most recent data, taken before the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, showed that in America the average worker worked for 34.4 hours per week.

But how does that data look when it’s broken down?

By Age

Age 16-19: 24.1 hours per week.

Age 20-24: 34.8 hours per week.

Age 25-54: 40.5 hours per week.

Age 55+: 38

By Gender

Men: Men worked an average of 41 hours per week.

Women: Women worked an average of 36.4 hours per week.

By Race

White American: 38.9 hours per week.

African American: 38.7 hours per week.

Asian American: 38.9 hours per week.

By Ethnicity

Hispanic and Latino: 38.2 hours per week.

Average Hours Per Day

Calculating the average hours per day worked can vary depending on whether or not employees are on hourly or salaried pay.

However, the national average of hours per day is 8.5 during the week and 5.4 hours during the weekend.

Full-time employees tend to only work on weekdays. But a rather large 31% of full-time employees reported that they use a portion of their weekend to catch up on their workload.

The Importance of Offering a Work/Life Balance

When offering your employees a job, it’s important to take into consideration the effects the work could have on their mental health.

Having your employees commit all of their time to the job without leaving time to relax, have fun and rest can lead to them burning out. It can also lead to depression or other serious mental issues.

Having an overworked workforce will also lead to negative business results. More mistakes will be made, morale will be low and the overall quality of the work will greatly suffer.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to working hours.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) introduced a 40-hour workweek threshold. This stated that any employee who worked more than 40 hours per week would be entitled to overtime pay.

This meant that employees would be fairly compensated for the extra hours they were working. But it didn’t fix the problem of employees working too many hours.

Therefore it is part of your duty of care as an employer to make sure that you are offering a fair and manageable work schedule.

This can be done by keeping track of your employee’s hours and making sure they are not working at an unreasonable rate.

Key Takeaways

It is important to understand that more working hours does not equal more hours worked.

Productivity tends to have a plateau. It is even suspected that productivity per hour falls after a person works more than 50 hours a week.

This means that working long hours can not only negatively affect your employees but can negatively impact your business.

Therefore you should always offer your employees a schedule that allows them a suitable amount of leisure time. This means they can relax, rest and come back to work full of energy.

Are you looking for more business advice on everything from starting a new business to new business practices?

Then check out the FreshBooks resource hub.

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