- While Americans cling to their hybrid schedules to have some flexibility with their jobs, workers in the Netherlands have quietly abandoned the five-day workweek, working an average of 32.1 hours in 2024. And the country’s staffers have women to thank for the change. The new work standard could help keep people in the labor force, as working women in the U.S. have dropped out in droves amid RTO pushes.
Ever since the pandemic, American workers have clung to their remote schedules for as long as possible as CEOs drag their staffers back into the office. Loving the freedom that comes with flexible schedules, some have even pushed for four-day workweeks—but for one tiny European nation, that dream’s already a reality.
Workers in the Netherlands between the ages of 20 and 64 worked an average of 32.1 hours per week in 2024, according to data from Eurostat. The country has the highest rate of shorter workweeks in Europe, followed by Austria, Germany and Denmark, all with around 34-hour workweeks.
In contrast, Americans employed full-time worked an average of 42.9 hours weekly in 2024, according to a Gallup poll—and that’s actually an improvement from 2019, when U.S. staffers clocked in 44.1 hours weekly. And it’s not only North Americans putting on the grind, as over a third of employed people in the EU spent nearly 40 to 45 hours on the job weekly last year, according to the Eurostat data.
How women in the workforce helped shift the Netherlands to 32 hour workweeks
There’s a primary reason why the Dutch have quietly shifted to a four-day workweek: women. After their entrance into the workforce, things would never be the same.
Like many other nations around the world, the Netherlands used to operate on a male-centered working model that placed men as the breadwinners. The weeks were longer, more similar to America’s traditional 40-hour workweek—but then women started to join the labor force in part time roles starting in the 1980s.
Over the next few decades, women’s workforce participation would shift the family earning structure and the country’s tax codes. The Netherlands went on to adopt a “one-and-a-half” earning model, where one parent worked full-time and the other part-time. The trending system was bolstered with tax breaks and benefits, and the working pattern became a standard among employees of all genders. Even working dads were taking advantage of the new structure, peeling out of work early to care for their young children.
Shorter workweeks could also combat unemployment—and America’s working women need it
Today, the policy change is not only helping employed parents juggling caretaking responsibilities—it’s also keeping people in the labor force, as other countries struggle with unemployment rates.
In 1991, just as more women were taking on part-time roles in the Netherlands, the country’s unemployment rate stood at 7.3%, according to data from The World Bank. Only a decade later, that number shot down dramatically—only 2.1% of the country’s population was jobless. While there have been fluctuations in the years since, the unemployment rate has remained steadily low since 2018, currently resting at just 3.6%. Since its citizens have more flexible workweek options, more are able to stay in the labor force while juggling their personal responsibilities.
Comparatively, the U.S.’s unemployment rate stood at just 4.2% in July, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But with the U.S.’s population encompassing more than 342 million people, compared to the Netherlands with just 17.8 million citizens, the 0.6% difference in unemployment rates represents millions and millions more Americans out of work. And there’s one group of people who may be most at risk of being unemployed in the U.S.: women.
Whether it be the pendulum swing back to RTO, dwindling promotions, or a changing social landscape, women are being pushed out of the workforce in droves: Between January and June this year, 212,000 women aged 20 and older have left the American workforce, according to a BLS analysis. Meanwhile, 44,000 men entered the labor force in that same time period. In that six-month span, the employment rate of women ages 25 to 44 living with a child under five fell from 69.7% to 66.9%.
