Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
Most people don&#x27;t get to choose how many hours they work.<p>Employers, especially those that pay benefits, want you working as much as possible. Anything less is money on the table.<p>(I&#x27;m not an employer.)<p>It&#x27;s good for an employer if you work overtime, all he has to pay is time, or time and a half, or nothing if you&#x27;re salaried. He doesn&#x27;t have to pay more benefits, as he would with an additional employee. Of course an employer wants to get as much work out of you as possible for benefits paid.<p>As an employee, working overtime only gets you more cash (or even none). Working less makes your benefits more valuable.<p>Even if employment is strictly for money, with no benefits at all, there&#x27;s an administrative overhead to hiring and managing more employees.<p>As long as we are employed by employers, and especially if we get health insurance through our employer, there will always be pressure to work more, not less.