“Do the Germans Really Work Six Weeks More than the French?” – Measuring Working Time with the Labour Force Survey in France and Germany

Abstract

Measuring working time is not only an important objective of the EU Labour Force Survey (LFS), but also a highly demanding task in terms of methodology. Against the background of a recent debate on the comparability of working time estimates in France and Germany, this article presents a comparative assessment of the measurement of working time in the Labour Force Survey obtained in both countries. It focuses on the measurement of the hours actually worked, the key working-time concept for short-term economic analysis and the National Accounts. The contribution systematically analyses the differences in the measurement approaches used in France and Germany in order to identify the methodological effects that hinder comparability. It comes to the conclusion that the LFS overstates the difference in hours actually worked in France and Germany and identifies question comprehension, rounding, editing effects, as well as certain aspects of the sampling design, as crucial factors of a reliable measurement in particular of absences from work during the reference week. We recommend continuing the work started in the European Statistical System towards the development of a model questionnaire in order to improve cross-national harmonisation of key variables such as hours actually worked.

International productivity gaps

“…To illustrate the potential scale of reporting bias in this area, the table below compares responses to LFS questions on leave and public holidays in France and Germany and, in turn, compares these with the contractual leave entitlements in these countries. The comparison is limited to full-time employees, considered to be homogeneous groups with the greatest impact on average hours actually worked (Körner et al, 2016).…”

“…To put this difference into context, and to illustrate the potential for reporting bias, annualising the weekly estimates indicates that German employees only take just over a half of their leave (22 days out of 40) compared to just over 100% for French employees, showing that self-reported leave in the EU LFS for Germany is likely to be underestimated (Körner et al, 2016). In turn, and as a result, actual weekly hours of work of full-time employees in Germany (and by extension all workers) are likely to be overestimated in the survey.…”