Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
Most people don't get to choose how many hours they work.Employers, especially those that pay benefits, want you working as much as possible. Anything less is money on the table.(I'm not an employer.)It'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're salaried. He doesn'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.As an employee, working overtime only gets you more cash (or even none). Working less makes your benefits more valuable.Even if employment is strictly for money, with no benefits at all, there's an administrative overhead to hiring and managing more employees.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.