Number of hours worked per week is not everything. I suspect that Americans do work less over the whole lifetime -- the retirement age has decreased (at least for men, see [1]) while life expectancy is increasing. The problem is that it&#x27;s impossible to estimate total hours worked over lifetime for people presently in their 20s-30s and current pensioners give you a delayed statistic.<p>Personally I think that economy based on a 15-hour work week would be sub-optimal. Total salaries being equal, I&#x27;d rather employ a single person working 40 hours than three working 15 where you need to deal with lots of communication and administrative overhead.<p>Maybe the solution would be taking multiple &quot;gap years&quot; during your career or &quot;mini retirements&quot; but many employers don&#x27;t like holes in your CVs.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.soa.org&#x2F;News-and-Publications&#x2F;Newsletters&#x2F;Pension-Section-News&#x2F;2012&#x2F;february&#x2F;What-Is-The-Average-Retirement-Age-.aspx" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.soa.org&#x2F;News-and-Publications&#x2F;Newsletters&#x2F;Pensio...</a>