Publications of the Polish Economic Institute (PIE) show that people work longer in Lithuania (38.6 hours), Bulgaria (38.6 hours), Romania (38.4 hours) and Latvia (38.3 hours) than in Poland. The EU average last year was 35 hours. The shortest working hours were those employed in the Netherlands (29.7 hours), Denmark (32.4 hours), Belgium (32.6 hours), Austria (33.0 hours) and Germany (33.4 hours).
The Institute pointed out that natural persons running a business work longer hours during the week than employees. In Poland, in 2025, natural persons running a business and not employing employees worked on average 41.4 hours. per week, and those running a business and employing employees – 43.7 hours.
The chart shows the average number of hours worked per week in the countries concerned.
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PIE
In the case of entrepreneurs without employees, the EU average is 38.4 hours. The shortest working hours are for the self-employed from Germany (33.1 hours), Estonia (33.2 hours), Cyprus (33.2 hours) and Luxembourg (33.5 hours), while the longest working hours are from Greece (44.1 hours). PIE, however, emphasized that entrepreneurs employing employees devote even more time to work – an average of 44.7 hours. per week in the EU. In this group, entrepreneurs from Latvia (37.4 hours) and Estonia (37.9 hours) work the least, and the most – from France (48.4 hours), Belgium (48.2 hours) and Greece (47.3 hours).
Longer doesn't mean better
In Poland, 6.2 percent employees work part-time, which is one of the lowest results in the EU – across the EU the percentage is on average 17.7%. The most people are employed part-time in the Netherlands (42.7%), Austria (30.1%) and Germany (29.4%), and the least in Bulgaria (1.7%).
Longer weekly working hours do not necessarily translate into higher productivity. “In the EU, the highest productivity is achieved by, among others, Luxembourg, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and France, i.e. countries where employees' working time is among the shortest. Extended working time may be associated with excessive workload, which in turn contributes to a decline in productivity,” PIE pointed out.
