Daily BrewEurope leads the world in work-life balance
Work-life balance
: Who does it best?
That was the question Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) attempted to answer.
The OECD looked at data from 34 countries, assessing work-life balance in their well-being index, the Better Life Initiative. For the study, the balance was determined by three indicators: time devoted to personal activities, employment rate of women with children between the ages of 6 and 14, and the number of employees working over 50 hours a week.
Belgians topped the "personal time" category, with an impressive 16.61 hours a day of time off. (Canadians have 14.97 hours outside of work, which is still lower than the OECD average.)
Northern European countries proved least likely to overwhelm with overtime. Both the Netherlands and Sweden have only 0.001 per cent of their populations working over 50 hours a week on a regular basis.
In Denmark, 78 per cent of mothers go back to work when their children head off to school.
The top ten countries with the best work-life balance:
1. Denmark
2. Norway
3. Netherlands
4. Finland
5. Belgium
6. Switzerland
7. Sweden
8. Germany
9. Portugal
10. France
The Great White North has a high female-employment rate, at 76 per cent, compared to the average of 64 per cent. Seventy-one per cent of mothers return to work once their children begin school. And while Canada performed well in a number of family indicators -- fertility rates, gender pay gaps, child poverty and children's educational achievement -- childcare enrolment lags behind OECD standards.
OECD's Canadian findings conclude that "childcare support could help vulnerable families."
(AFP Photo)
