In 2007, full-time employees reported working 1,680 hours annually over 212 days in their main paid job. The typical working week for these employees is, on average, 39 hours and 24 minutes spread over five days. Even when employed full time, women work significantly less than men. It also appears that working time is longer in the private sector. Furthermore, self-employed workers work an average of 2,560 hours a year over the course of 271 days.
Working time standards
Since 2002, the legal weekly working time in France is fixed at 35 hours for all companies, regardless of size. This legally defined working time is the term of reference to define part-time and overtime work. The ‘35 hours’ law introduced the possibility to reduce working time on an annual basis – for instance, workers continue to work about 40 hours a week and the working time reduction takes the form of additional days of leave. Thus, working time is increasingly more frequently calculated on an annual basis: working 35 hours a week corresponds to an annual working time of 1,607 hours or 218 days.
Full-time employees work more than 35 hours a week
On average, full-time employees worked 1,680 hours over 212 days in 2007. More precisely, men employed full time worked 1,730 hours and women employed full time worked 1,600 hours in 2007. In other words, women worked close to the legal reference (1,607 hours a year) while men worked 130 hours more than women. This gap is marginally explained by the characteristics of the worker (age, qualification and family situation) or of the employer (public or private company and number of employees). For these full-time employees, the annual average working time is 1,470 hours for men and 1,346 for women in the public sector, and 1,572 and 1,438 hours respectively in the private sector; the totals amount to 1,621 and 1,421 hours respectively in micro-enterprises with fewer than 10 employees.
The average weekly working time for full-time employees is 39 hours and 24 minutes over five days. Overall, 10% of employees report a typical weekly working time of 48 hours or more. Skilled white-collar employees report, on average, a weekly working time of 44 hours and 30 minutes. Almost one third of them reveal that they work 48 hours or more a week.
The annual working time is linked with two major parameters: the sector of economic activity and the level of qualification of workers. Employees in the private sector work, on average, 100 hours more annually than those in the public sector. The difference mainly stems from the number of days worked, as the daily working time is similar for both groups.
For men, annual working time increases with the level of qualifications. For women, the level of qualifications does not impact as much on working time. Thus, while skilled male workers work 289 hours a year more than male blue-collar workers, the gap for women in both roles is lower, at 202 hours.
Situations of specific groups of workers
Self-employed workers
Full-time self-employed workers report a much longer annual working time than employees: 2,560 hours in 2007. They also report having long workdays of 9 hours and 28 minutes on average – compared with 7 hours and 55 minutes for employees – as well as a high number of days worked (271 days) in 2007. In fact, their standard working week is spread over six days.
Self-employed women work on average 230 hours less than men. They work about the same number of days, but their workday is shorter.
The situation of self-employed workers also differs in the proportion of unpaid leave days in the year. While the share of unpaid leave days is almost zero for employees, it represents more than 25% of ‘days off’ for self-employed workers.
It should be noted that the perception of working time differs between employees and self-employed workers. This is mainly due to the higher overlap between personal and working time for self-employed workers, and less precise accounting of time for them.
Employees with several employers
Employees with several employers represent 2.2% of the population covered by the analysis. In 2007, these employees worked 1,470 hours in their main paid job, and 1,920 hours when including all of their jobs.
About the study
The data for this analysis come from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The sample population is limited to full-time workers, who have worked continuously for four consecutive quarters at the time of the survey – excluding teachers, as their working time includes an amount of time that is difficult to assess. The calculation is made on the basis of the working time reported for a week of reference; the survey covers the 52 weeks of 2007.
Reference
Gonzalez, L. and Mansuy, A., ‘En 2007, les salariés à temps complet ont dépassé, en moyenne, les 35 heures’, INSEE Première, No. 1249, July 2009.
Anne-Marie Nicot, ANACT