On International Workers' Day, US Works Harder For Less

For most of the rest of the world, today is the International Workers’ Day, the equivalent of Labor Day here in the United States. The reason the US does not celebrate this day with most of the rest of the world is because of the fear of workers uprisings, socialism and communism. In an attempt to appease the working class after the deadly and brutal suppression of the Pullman strike, President Cleveland designated the Labor Day as we know it here in the US in 1894. There were already a number of states in the US where a day in September was designated to commemorate workers so it made some sense for Cleveland to designate that date. In addition, May 1st had been formally declared International Worker’s Day by the Second International, an international organization of socialist parties, in Paris in 1891. That day was specifically chosen to commemorate the Haymarket Riot in Chicago in 1886. So the fact that the day commemorated a less than memorable day in US history and was supported by socialist, communists, and anarchists gave Cleveland further reason to choose a day in September.

But enough history, let’s talk about US workers today, especially compared to our industrialized counterparts. According to the OECD, US workers put in far more hours that our industrialized counterparts.

https://data.oecd.org/chart/4Pg4

Now I know that all those European countries where people work far less are hellholes where no one has jobs, living off the dole, with areas of the big cities where police won’t go and are ruled by Sharia law. Of course, if you ever go there, you know that it’s not true. The fact is that the recognized dynamo of Western economies right now is Germany and they work nearly one quarter fewer hours than their counterparts in the US. In addition, those German workers get a version of a state run health care system. According to the OECD, after tax income for the median household in Germany is 31,925 USD per year. That number is 41,071 USD for the median household in the United States. So median income is roughly 25% less for Germans who work 25% less hours. It kind of makes sense until you consider health care costs in Germany are included in that income number. For many workers in the US, especially part-time workers, health care was a personal cost to workers before Obamacare and for higher earning individuals it still is. In the end, Americans work significantly harder for potentially less than their industrialized counterparts.