116 Million Full-Time Workers in America Doing the Work of 136 Million People

By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times

30 August 14

ull-time American workers labor the equivalent of nearly an additional day each week, averaging 47 hours instead of the standard 40, according to Gallup poll results released Friday.

Just 42% of full-time employees work 40 hours a week, the traditional total based on five 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. workdays, Gallup said of findings it released ahead of the Labor Day weekend.

Nearly the same percentage -- 39% -- say they work at least 50 hours a week. And almost one in five Americans, or 18%, said their workweek stretched 60 hours or more.

"The 40-hour workweek is widely regarded as the standard for full-time employment, and many federal employment laws -- including the Affordable Care Act, or 'Obamacare' -- use this threshold to define what a full-time employee is," Gallup said.

"However, barely four in 10 full-time workers in the U.S. indicate they work precisely this much," Gallup said.

Salaried employees work an average of 49 hours a week, compared with 44 hours for people paid by the hour. A quarter of salaried workers said they spend 60 or more hours a week on the job.

The overall 47-hour average workweek has held roughly steady for 14 years, Gallup said.

But the percentage of workers with full-time employment now is 43%, down from about 50% before the Great Recession.

Part-timers are about 9% of the adult population, also consistent with poll results over the past 14 years, Gallup said.

The results are based on surveys of 1,271 adults in Gallup's 2013 and 2014 Work and Education Survey.