Working hours are continually decreasing – Prosperity cannot be maintained by fueling fantasies of a 32-hour week
Vienna (OTS) – Our welfare state is under pressure. Although the population is growing, the volume of work on which the financing of our prosperity and our social system depends is stagnating. In view of the increasing shortage of labor and skilled workers and the rising costs for the welfare state, it is appropriate to increase the overall volume of work. We will not be able to maintain our prosperity by fueling fantasies of a 32-hour week, because there will be no such thing as prosperity without performance.
Numerous people work more and get involved every day. The fewer these people become, the more pressure they come under. 20 years ago, the group of people who paid no income tax was around a quarter; now this number has grown to around 34 percent. This is also due to the falling working hours per employee, which has continued to decline in recent years: from 2015 to 2023 it fell from 1,520 hours to 1,448 hours. If you look at the average weekly hours actually worked by employees, including part-time, Austria is 32.7 hours.
Increase overall work volume in Austria
More people working less, with the same benefits – at some point that will no longer be possible! Our goal must therefore be to increase the total volume of work in Austria, because our prosperity and our welfare state depend on this. It is therefore important to convince more people to switch from part-time to more work and to stay in their careers longer. Increasing working hours to 41 hours would be a reasonable contribution for each individual – half an hour per day, 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon – with a great overall effect on our prosperity and our social system. The tax allowance proposed in the “Performance must be worth it again” package for a change from part-time to full-time employment of 5,000 euros should be taken into account. In principle, agreements on working hours and the corresponding remuneration models are at the discretion of the social partner negotiations.
Increasing working hours brings added value for the location
According to a study by EcoAustria, the economic effects of an extension of working hours with a correspondingly higher gross monthly income would result in an increase in real GDP of 1.2 percent or 5 to 6 billion euros. Real net income per person employed is also increasing – by 1.3 to 1.4 percent in the medium term. According to IV calculations, this is also accompanied by an increase in taxes of EUR 2.1 billion – this additional income can also be used, for example, to expand childcare or education. For example, more than 30,000 additional people could be employed in the field of education and training. This is how we create win-win situations for location and prosperity.
