Work-Life Balance

Work-Life Balance is about being able to combine family commitments, leisure and work – including both paid and unpaid work. Across OECD countries, the average time spent on leisure and personal care by full-time employed people ranges from around 14 to 16.5 hours per day. Full-time employed men enjoy 30 minutes more leisure and personal care time relative to women, while the young and old spend 50 and 25 minutes more than the middle-aged, respectively. In the 13 OECD countries with available data, the share of the population working long hours in unpaid work ranges from 7% to 17%. When considering both paid and unpaid working time together, women work, on average, 25 minutes longer per day than men do. Average satisfaction with time use, measured on a 0-10 scale, never exceeds 8 and can be as low as 5.6. Middle-aged people are consistently the least satisfied with their time use.