Working time is a crucial issue for both research and public policy. This book presents the first comprehensive analysis of both paid and unpaid work time, integrating a unique discussion of overwork, underwork, shortening of the working week, and flexible work practices. Time at work is affected by a complex web of evolving culture and social relations, as well as market, technological, and macroeconomic forces, and institutions such as collective bargaining and government policy. Using a variety of new data sources, the authors review the latest trends on working time in numerous countries.

Contents:
1. Introduction and overview:Understanding working time around the world Part I: Current trends and patterns in work hours: What is the evidence? 2. The enigma of working time trends 3. Working time reduction in the European Union: A diversity of trends and approaches 4:.The longest day: Working time for teachers 5. Working hours and time pressure: The controversy about trends in time use Part II: Empirical and theoretical foundations:Explaining overwork and underemployment 6. Who are the overworked Americans? 7. The incentive to work hard: Differences in black and white workers hours and preferences 8. Driven to spend: Longer work hours as a by-product of market forces 9. Natural, social and political limits to work time: The contemporary relevance of Marx's analysis 10. Revising the labour supply curve: Implications for work time and minimum wage legislation Part III: Innovations in working time and public policy 11. Working time reductions, employment consequences and lessons from Europe: Defusing a quasi-religious controversy 12. The perennial 'lump of labour' case against worksharing: Populist fallacy or marginalist throwback? 13. Better timing: Work schedule flexibility among US workers and policy directions 14. The social implications of European work time policies: Promoting gender equity? 15. History and housework: :Implications for work hours and family policies in market economies