July 2018 – Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College, recently published a book titled The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline in Leisure that brings to light some surprising statistics. According to Schor, the average American works more than a medieval peasant did.
The average American worker in 1987 clocked about 1,949 hours annually, while an adult male peasant in 13th century U.K. worked approximately 1,620 hours annually. Compared to 2015, American employees now work slightly less (about 1,811 hours per year) according to a Pew analysis of 2015 Labor Department data.
