“Don’t smoke too much, drink too much, eat too much, or work too much. We’re all on the road to the grave—but there’s no need to be in the passing lane. ” — Robert Orben. The average American works about 34. 4 hours per week, making us the 16th highest worked country in the world. The highest country is Mexico who has an average of 42 hours per week, the other countries are very close to the American average. Many people feel like they have to work overtime just to provide for themselves and their family.
The more hours employees work creates a surplus of labor causing employers to pay their workers less to combat that. They can’t give the workers the pay raises they deserve because they have to pay too much for the overtime they work. The average American full time worker works on average of 47 hours per week which affects the time they spend with their family, the average wage workers get paid and how well they handle stress. We Work Half of Our Lives Working Affects School Most American teens feel the pressure of getting a job at 16 or 17 by their parents and their friends.
Some of them get stuck in closing shift jobs which require them to be working until 12 or later on school nights. This is bad because in the morning they have to wake up at 6 to get to school so they aren’t getting enough sleep. This can affect their grades because they don’t have enough time and their attention span is threatened by exhaustion. Teenagers also lose out on opportunities to spend time with friends and go to social events. They have less time to see their parents and siblings and to go to family events.
Children and Spouse “A man had a choice, after all. He devoted his life to his work or to his wife and children and home. It could not be combined; not in this day and age. In this insane world where God was second to income and goodness to wealth. ” (Richard Matheson) Many workers have a hard time going to their children’s extracurricular activities such as baseball games and ballet recitals. Workers are only given a certain amount of days of per year off and most Americans feel that they have to take less days than what they are offered off.
Mothers only get 12 unpaid leave weeks, which is considerably lower than other countries. Estonia, the highest paid leave country, gives a minimum of 87 paid maternity leave weeks and the lowest country is New Zealand which gets 2 full months paid leave. “America is the only developed country in the world that doesn’t mandate some form of paid maternity leave. It doesn’t offer paid leave for new fathers, either. ”(Newman) Work Past 65 Only slightly less than a quarter of people feel like they can or should retire at 65 and those that do only part of them can retire that early.
Most of the people in that group actually retire at 67 and the age keeps increasing. 70 years old is the second most targeted age to get retired also slightly under a quarter. These 70 year olds do this so the can still make money and they can get higher Social Security payments. Some people never are able to retire because they aren’t financially stable and can’t make the payments. By this age many people aren’t able to do the things they used to and have missed several opportunities. Health and Mental Issues
Health Problems Full Time workers are more likely to suffer from severe health problems throughout the rest of their lives. Overtime leads to an increased risk of back pain especially if workers are in a job that leaves them behind a computer or sitting all day. Sitting behind a desk can also lead to diabetes, obesity, heart attacks and cancer which could result in death. People who sit at work are more likely to sit and watch tv when they are off of work instead of workout. Working overtime also reduces the amount of sleep the worker is going to get.
On average adults need seven to nine hours of sleep but people who work a lot are more likely to get less than six hours of sleep and people who work full time are more likely to get six and a half hours of sleep on a good night. Not getting enough sleep leads to a slew of problems such as decreased memory, weight gain, and cardiovascular health problems. When you work 10 or more hours a day your chance of heart disease jump by 60%, also people who are more likely to work even when they are sick tend to have more heart attacks than those who don’t.
