leisure

Taking a cue from the U.S., conservatives in France want to relax the country's stringent leisure laws, allowing private sector employees to work more than the current mandatory 35 hours a week. The proponents of the proposal cite low productivity and rising costs. But, according to Tony Judt, in a review in the NYRB, while the U.S. outworks France 1,877 hours a year to 1,562, our productivity is outranked by France, as well as Germany, Luxembourg, and others.