Another stereotype crumbles before the fact gods. Mexico hours worked are the highest and as the fourteenth largest economy in the world, Mexico is the hardest working as measured by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
In its Employment Outlook 2012 report that was released during the first quarter of 2013, the OECD said Mexican workers toil longer annually than any other OECD-measured country: 2,250 hours per capita during 2012, well above the OECD average of 1,775 hours.
Mexican jobs website Trabajando.com also surveyed working Mexicans last year and found that although over six out of 10 respondents self-identified as workaholics, only 23 percent claimed that they worked more than 55 hours a week. Another 37 percent said they worked between 50 and 55 hours in an average workweek and 31 percent said they worked between 45 and 50 hours each week.
Working long hours is not a new phenomenon in our neighbor to the south. Mexico City newspaper (Reforma) columnist Guadalupe Loaeza told the Washington Post: “How did we acquire that picture of the lazybones snoozing under the cactus? We know that life is hard every day in our country. That you cannot work one job. You have to have three. You have to work even on weekends.”
“Mexicans need to work more than people in more developed countries,” said Armando Chacon, a director at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness to the Washington Post. “Mexican households have parents who are at least 30 percent less educated than households in developed countries. The less skills and knowledge people have on average, the less productive their time is.”
Most Mexicans agree that it’s time to put the stereotype of the mañana culture to bed. We agree. The fact gods proved it.