Work-Life Balance

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Latvia, slightly about 2% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Latvia, full-time workers devote a similar amount of their day on average, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) to the OECD average of 15 hours.

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In South Africa, slightly more than 15% of employees work very long hours in paid work, more than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In South Africa, full-time workers devote less of their day on average to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) than the OECD average of 15 hours.

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Australia, about 13% of employees work very long hours in paid work, above the OECD average of 10%.

 

 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as personal care or leisure. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Australia, full-time workers devote 60% of their day on average, or 14.4 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Austria, almost 5% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Austria, full-time workers devote 60% of their day on average, or 14.5 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Better childcare

Affordable high quality childcare helps families balance work-family obligations. Austria has created a budget of EUR 440 million for 2014-17 to increase the quality of childcare and meet the European Union Barcelona enrolment rate targets. Early results include an increase of the enrolment rate of children up to age 3 by 25% and the target for children aged 3 to 6 years old has already been achieved. Länder and municipalities subsidise the operating expenses of public and private childcare providers. Several Länder help families by offering free full-time childcare while others adjust fees to the income level of parents. A pilot project in 70 locations has also put value on improving the quality of education for young children by integrating the curriculum across the last kindergarten year and the first two years of primary school. This project is being expanded to the entire country over 2016/17.

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Belgium, about 4% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%.

 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Belgium, full-time workers devote 65% of their day on average, or 15.5 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.), more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Brazil, about 6% of employees work very long hours in paid work, less than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Brazil, full-time workers devote a similar amount of their day on average, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Canada, just 3% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Canada, full-time workers devote 61% of their day on average, or 14.6 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – slightly less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Full-day kindergarten

Ontario, Canada has invested heavily in providing early childhood education on a province wide basis by establishing full day kindergarten for four and five year old children. In September 2010, Ontario began phasing in the Full-Day Kindergarten Programme, with full implementation in all schools by September 2015. The schools day runs from 9:00 am-3:00 pm and each school is also encouraged to offer before and after school programming (e.g. childcare) on site outside of these hours, with the goal of creating a seamless day for children and parents. Four- and five-year-olds will learn under the guidance of a teacher and an early childhood educator. This will make it easier for parents to get to and from work and will ensure their children have an integrated learning programme for the whole day.

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Chile, however, nearly 8% of employees work very long hours in paid work, less than the OECD average of 10%. 

 

 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Chile, full-time workers devote less of their day on average, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In the Czechia, almost 5% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Czechia, full-time workers devote a similar amount of their day on average, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Denmark, about 1% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Denmark, full-time workers devote more of their day on average, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.)  than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Flexible jobs

Danish Flexjobs were introduced to accommodate employees that work at a different pace or need shorter hours. Under these agreements employers pay their workers based on the effective work done. Depending on their wage level workers may also qualify for an additional supplement. Flexjob agreements are granted for a period of five years and then eligibility is reassessed. At this point municipalities sometimes grant workers over 40 years old with a permanent place in a Flexjob.

The Aalborg University Hospital uses Flexjob agreements to lessen the workload of older workers. Employees over the age of 58 can reduce their hours while receiving the same pension contributions from their employer. They can also request special job appraisals, fixed hours, and apply to be relieved of weekend and extra holiday work. Older workers with chronic diseases can request lighter duty. The hospital has also set up a welfare team to improve physical and mental conditions at work, prevent absenteeism due to sickness or exclusion, and avoid occupational injuries.

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Estonia, about 2% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Estonia, full-time workers devote 63% of their day on average, or 15 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – the same as the OECD average. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Finland, almost 4% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Finland, full-time workers devote 63% of their day on average, or 15.2 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – slightly more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In France, almost 8% of employees work very long hours in paid work, less than the OECD average of 10%.

 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In France full-time workers devote 67% of their day on average, or 16.2 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress.  In Germany, about 4% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Germany, full-time workers devote 65% of their day on average, or 15.6 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – slightly more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Promoting work-life balance

The 2015 New Reconciliation Memorandum follows up on previous charters developed within the context of the company network Erfolgsfaktor Familie (Family as a Success Factor) to help identify where progress has been made in achieving work-life balance, where challenges remain, and to draw up guidelines. It calls for equal sharing among men and women and appeals to employers to offer “flexitime” arrangements and reduced full-time working hours for both fathers and mothers, known as vollzeitnah, as well as more affordable,quality childcare. The 2015 parental leave reform has also made it easier for parents to combine part-time work and taking leave, and provides financial incentives to encourage both partners in a family to do 25-30 hours/week of paid work for at least four months.

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Greece, nearly 5% of employees work very long hours in paid work, less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Greece, full-time workers devote 63% of their day on average to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – the same as the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Hungary, about 2% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Hungary, full-time workers devote 63% of their day on average to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – similar to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

More support to families can boost fertility in Hungary

At 1.34 children per woman, the total fertility rate in Hungary is one of the lowest in the OECD (the average is 1.71). The decline in fertility started in the 1980s, and accelerated in the early 1990s. Since 2000, fertility rates stabilised in Hungary, while about half of the other OECD countries experienced an increase. Low fertility goes hand in hand with low employment among women. In 2013, the female employment rate was 52.8% (about 5 percentage points below the OECD average), and at 51.7% in 2011 the maternal employment rate was among the lowest in European OECD countries.

Low fertility and female employment rates are largely explained by insufficient support for parents to reconcile work and care commitments. Hungary is among the top OECD spenders on families with 4% of GDP allocated to family benefits in 2011. However, only one-third of such spending is on family services (including childcare supports) while this share is closer to 50% in countries with higher female employment and fertility rates.

The prolonged duration of parental leave and the limited provision of childcare supports establish barriers to employment for many mothers. Parental leave can last up to 3 years (compared with 1.5 years on average across the OECD) and be combined with a cash-for-care payment; a parent of three or more children can even stay at home and receive this benefit until the youngest child is eight years old. Moreover, less than 10% of children under age 3 are enrolled in formal childcare services.

The evidence from other countries is that a wider provision of formal childcare services is a more effective tool for helping parents with work and family commitments and thus raise birth rates.

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress.  In Iceland, the share of employees working very long hours in paid work is about 12%, more than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Iceland, full-time workers devote less of their day on average, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Ireland, some 5% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Ireland, full-time workers devote 61% of their day on average, or 14.5 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Israel, slightly more than 14% of employees work very long hours in paid work, more than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Isreal, full-time workers devote less of their day on average to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Italy, about 3% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Italy, full-time workers devote 69% of their day on average, or 16.5 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – more than the OECD average of 15 hours.

Better Policies for Better Lives

Improving work-life balance through free childcare

The Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance provides a free care and entertainment service aimed at children of its employees from 4 to 12 years old. The services are located at the Ministry Headquarters in Rome and in nearby external sports facilities during summer. It is operational on weekdays when there is no school. In the morning before starting work, employees can leave their children in care and collect them at lunch time. If their working hours involve an afternoon, they can also leave them after lunch and collect them in the evening. The care activities are managed by qualified childcare staff.

This improves work-life balance, with 76% of users valuing the experience of the service by their sons and daughters as "excellent" and 21% as "good". Also the work attendance rate of employees who use the service is on average higher than that of other employees with children of the same age. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Japan, the percentage of employees that work very long hours in paid work is much higher than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Japan, full-time workers devote 59% of their day on average, or 14.1 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Japan has fewer babies and lower female employment

Parents in Japan find it difficult to combine work and family commitments. Workplace practices, private costs (housing and juku), and social norms put pressure on young people. Hence, young Japanese postpone marriage, delay parenthood and often have fewer children than intended.

Japan is among the "lowest-low" fertility countries with a fertility rate of 1.42 in 2014. There has been a small rebound since 2005, but nevertheless the population has started to decline.

Japanese social policy has introduced several measures to reduce barriers to both parenting and employment. However, despite these efforts, policies such as childcare can be further developed. Increasing childcare provision and reducing private costs of out-of-school services are both crucial for parental employment. Japanese public spending on childcare and preschool services is the fourth lowest among OECD countries. Childcare constraints persist and enrolment rates for children under 3 (at 30.4%), although increasing, are still below the OECD average (33%).

Japanese workplace practices make it difficult for parents to combine work and family life. After the high cost of education, many educated Japanese women first want to establish regular employment before having children. Furthermore, once Japanese women leave the labour force to care for children, they often end up in non-regular employment, which is often low paid, part-time, and temporary. Parents who wish to get back to work need to have better opportunities to re-enter regular employment, otherwise, those who can afford to stay at home do so rather than return to a low-quality job. The result is fewer babies and lower female employment levels than the OECD average, at a time when Japan needs more working women to replace the aging working age population.

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Korea, the percentage of employees that work very long hours in paid work is much higher than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Korea, full-time workers devote 62% of their day on average, or 14.8 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – close to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Helping parents

Like many countries, Korea has struggled with a declining fertility rate putting stress on the future economy. The Korean government has supported a number of initiatives since the early 2000s so that parents are not forced to choose between work and family commitments.

For example, formal childcare has been made a priority, first increasing and expanding the subsidy in 2004, and then dropping the income-test in 2013 and further extending coverage to children aged 3-5 years. These changes created a universal programme of public assistance for centre-based childcare. Overall, public spending on early childhood education and care increased from 0.1% of GDP in 2000 to 0.9% in 2014, the highest increase in public investment in this area in any OECD country. This had a positive impact on enrolment rates for children aged 0-2 years, increasing from 4% in 2002 to 35% in 2014. Enrolment for children aged 3-5 years also increased significantly from 31% in 2005 to 92% in 2014.

Korean parents can also better manage their time thanks to a system of child-related leaves until their child’s second birthday. Employed parents are entitled to three types of leave, including maternity leave, paternity leave and parental leave as well as financial support for maternity and parental leave. The extension of duration and increase in payment rates for maternity and parental leave have increased take-up of maternity leave in the private sector fivefold between 2002 and 2015.

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Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Luxembourg, about 3% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Luxembourg, full-time workers devote a smilar amount of their day on average to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Mexico, however, 27% of employees work very long hours in paid work, the highest level in the OECD, where the average is 10%. 

 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Mexico, full-time workers devote less of their day on average to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In the Netherlands, 0.3% of employees work very long hours in paid work, the lowest rate in the OECD, where the average is 10%. 

 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In the Netherlands, full-time workers devote 64% of their day on average, or 15.4 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. However, in New Zealand, some 14% of employees work very long hours in paid work, more than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In New Zealand, full-time workers devote 62% of their day on average, or 14.9 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – slightly less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Norway, about 1% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Norway, full-time workers devote 65% of their day on average, or 15.7 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Poland, 4% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Poland, full-time workers devote 61% of their day on average, or 14.7 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Portugal, some 6% of employees work very long hours in paid work, less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Portugal, full-time workers devote a similar amount of their day on average, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In the Russian Federation only 0.1% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In the Russian Federation, full-time workers devote a similar amount of their day on average to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In the Slovak Republic, some 4% of employees work very long hours in paid work, much less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Slovak Republic, full-time workers devote a similar amount of their day on average to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Slovenia, some 6% of employees work very long hours in paid work, less than the OECD average of 10%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Slovenia, full-time workers devote a similar amount of their day on average to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Spain, some 3% of employees work very long hours in paid work, muchless than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Spain, full-time workers devote 66% of their day on average, or 15.7 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Spain should strengthen its policies to combine work and family life

Families in Spain find it difficult to combine work and family life; both female employment rates and fertility rates are low in international comparison. At around 1.3 children per woman, fertility rates in Spain have been amongst the lowest in the OECD for the past two decades. Increasingly, women and men first want to establish themselves in the labour market before having children. This has led to a postponement of childbirth and the average age of first childbirth for mothers is now close to 30. Low fertility rates are also related to a fall in the number of large families and a significant proportion of women remaining childless.

Female employment in Spain has risen markedly over recent years, from 32.5% in 1995 to 51% today. However, despite this important increase, female employment in Spain is still below the OECD average (57.5%); and 75% of mothers go back to work only 8 years after childbirth. Governmental efforts in extending coverage and providing support to families to reduce the cost of childcare have led to an important increase in childcare participation. In 2010, 39.3% of children under 3 years old were enrolled in childcare services (the OECD average is 32.6%). However, out-of-school-hours care is limited and many working parents rely on informal providers: about a quarter of grandparents in Spain take care of their grandchildren on a daily basis.

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Sweden, about 1% of employees work very long hours in paid work, one of the lowest rates in the OECD, where the average is 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Sweden, full-time workers devote a similar amount of their day on average to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Easy access to parental benefits

The service 'My Pages' offers Swedish people online information on what types of benefits they are eligible for. The government launched a smartphone application so that parents, instead of filling out papers for temporary parental leave when staying home with their ill child, can apply for those benefits on line.

Now, approximately 43% of all the log-ins to My Pages come through the App. The 1.2 million users now log-in 80% more often than before the application. In addition, 24% of all the applications for temporary parental leave are now done via the App. Finally, the self-service level for temporary parental leave has increased from 62% to 80% from the date when the application was launched. Parents have expressed high customer satisfaction and the App was downloaded more than 200 000 times in the first three months alone.

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress.  In Switzerland, the share of employees working very long hours in paid work is 0.4%, much lower than the OECD average of 10% and one of the lowest rates in the OECD.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Switzerland, full-time workers devote a similar amount of their day on average to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In Türkiye, however, some 25% of employees work very long hours in paid work, one of the highest rates in the OECD, where the average is 10%. However, this represents a sizeable fall since 2011, when almost 46% of worked over 50 hours per week.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Türkiye, full-time workers devote 61% of their day on average, or 14.6 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Increasing efficiency and facilitating teleworking

The municipality of Yalova has introduced an integrated electronic document system called ZAMBAK to improve public service efficiency. Under this new system workflows and related documents or projects can be uploaded to digital archives. Work has also become more traceable helping managers better monitor performance measures. This has increased the opportunity for teleworking allowing nearly 70% of public service employees to work remotely when necessary. ZAMBAK has also decreased space dependence making it easier and cheaper for the municipality to manage work spaces. Yalova city is currently sharing lessons learned with other municipalities and employers across Turkey to help increase efficiencies. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress.  In the United Kingdom, some 11% of employees work very long hours in paid work, slightly more than the OECD average of 10%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In the United Kingdom, full-time workers devote 62% of their day on average, or 14.9 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – close to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. In the United States, some 10% of employees work very long hours, in line with the OECD average.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In the United States, full-time workers devote 61% of their day on average, or 14.6 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Reducing poverty among working families

OECD analysis suggests that the US could help working families to reduce poverty rates by strengthening services and benefits for children in their early years, including legislating for paid parental leave, and building on the successes of child education and care services, such as the Headstart programme and various state-level programmes.

In the US, total public spending on child welfare and education is USD 160 000 up to the age of 18, above the OECD average of USD 149 000. But the US starts spending relatively late, spending the most money on public compulsory education. This means early investment – including childcare and support for families around the time of birth – could be strengthened.

The US, for example, is the only OECD country without a national paid parental leave policy, although three states do provide leave payments. At the federal level, the available (unpaid) parental leave is short (12 weeks), and only covers some employees (those in companies with 50+ workers). While the implementation of a national paid leave program could entail some indirect costs for employers (e.g. temporarily replacing new parents on the job), it is more likely that such a scheme would be funded by employee contributions, as this is what happens at the state level. The pay-offs to paid leave are significant: there are benefits not only to child well-being but also to the labour market, as evidence suggests that when US mothers can access a leave entitlement, they are more likely to return to work than mothers who do not.

Mothers' return to work is important, as in the US economic stability is strongly linked to employment. A significant proportion of public family support is delivered via tax breaks and credits (45% of total, compared to 10% on average in the OECD). Nevertheless female employment in the US has been falling for the last decade, albeit from high levels. This fall is happening despite US women having better career prospects compared to most other OECD countries (35% of management jobs occupied by women), relatively high levels of education, and lower career costs associated with child-rearing (where mothers earn over 80% of non-mothers' earnings over a working life). The case for paid parental leave – and a new mother's job security – is compelling. 

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• How's Life?: Measuring Well-being