What Does EAC-PM Study Say About 70 Hour Workweek In India (image: pixabay)
The fierce debate around the long work hours has not settled yet. After Narayana Murthy, Infosys co-founder, advocated for a 70-hour workweek and a 90-hour workweek proposed by L&T CEO S N Subrahmanyan, Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX CEO recently suggested a 120-hour workweek. As the conflicting concerns such as “development,” “growth,” “work-life balance,” and “mental health” are being discussed, a recent study by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) gains attention.
The working paper titled ‘Time Spent on Employment-Related Activities in India: A Note’ was prepared by EAC-PM member Dr. Shamika Ravi delves into the character of working hours in different sectors across different Indian states and explains what was the relationship between time spent on economic activities and the economic output or gain that communicates. The observations of the study are based on the Time Use Survey Data (2019) conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) of the Government of India. Even though the data is six years old, it captures the essence of “work culture” in India, focusing on the time spent on economic activities.
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The report states that though India is comparable to other emerging economies in terms of daily hours worked, data reflect that there are noticeable variations across states, geographical areas, economic sectors, and government vs. private enterprises.
On average, Indians spend 422 minutes per day on paid economic activities or 42 hours per week (assuming 6 days per week), the study points out. Interestingly, this time varies across different states. As the Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli mark working time as more than 10 hours per day, exceeding average time, while Goa and most Northeastern states report less than 6 hours per day.
The data also suggested that the meaning of “work” denotes different activities across rural and urban areas; hence, working time also varies. “While an average individual in urban India works for 469 minutes (or 7.8 hours) per day, an average individual in rural India works for 399 minutes (or 6.65 hours) per day, which is a difference of more than an hour per day,” the study observes. The variation across different states and regions can be observed in this data as well.
If different economic sectors were being taken into account, people who were employed in secondary (e.g., manufacturing, processing, and construction) and tertiary sectors (e.g., transportation, medical, education, and retail) spent long working hours compared to people in the primary sector (e.g., agriculture, fishing, forestry, and mining). Also, among the social groups, OBCs (Other Backward Classes) report average work time similar to the all-India average, and people from Scheduled Tribes (STs) report lower working time on average.
Aside from this, the data shows that the time spent on paid economic activities by Indian women compared to males is lower. “The overall results show that male-female differences are significantly more than the urban-rural differences,” the study observes. This is due to traditional roles, women spend significantly more time on unpaid household activities, it states.
Different Enterprises: Government vs Private Enterprises
Compared to public/private companies, employees in the government sector engage in fewer working hours. “The results show that on an average, a person working in the government spends 45 minutes less on work each day than an average Indian, and he works almost an hour less compared to a person working in a private/public limited company,” the study finds. It adds that the gap is even wider in rural areas, wherein employees in private companies spend 71 minutes more on each working day.
Although people working in companies generally spent more working time than people working in the government sector, the difference cannot be calculated as uniform. As per the study, there is “little” difference between government and private/public company workers in states like Goa, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland. “They all work significantly fewer hours compared to their counterparts elsewhere in the country,” the study stated.
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Besides, findings of the study point out that people with regular wages/salaries are working longer hours per day than others in the country. People also argue that those involved in self-employment and engaged in other services are working longer hours than others. The study also delves into the connection between time spent on employment-related activities and per capita Net State Domestic Product (NSDP).
Question of the Hour: 70 Hours Per Week
The data shows that across the states, Gujarat has the largest proportion of people (7.21%) who work for more than 70 hours per week—meeting the benchmark—while Bihar has the lowest proportion at 1.05%. As a conclusion, the study suggests that since the data reflects people in Northeastern states and people in the government sector, work shorter hours per day in comparison to the rest of the country, by increasing time on employment-related activities, significant economic achievements can be attained.
