Polls - Sondages : Economics - Economie

Discussion

JOBS

The majority of Americans work 40-49 hours a week, so on average, we work more. Just thought you'd want to keep that in mind when you're comparing average annual salaries.

DEMOGRAPHICS: The following statistics relate to immigration views: Do you favor relaxing immigration laws to allow more immigrants into the country?

US: Yes - 13%,

No - 38%

kept at present level: 41%

France: Yes, definitely - 8%, Yes, maybe - 18%,

No, definitely - 40%, No, probably - 31%

Clearly, the US seems more favorably inclined towards immigrants. Do you think this has to do with the relative demographics of France vs. the US? Demographic Statistics:

US - White: 83 (Hispanics: 9; Mexicans: 5.5); Blacks: 12.1; Asians: 7.3; American Indians: 0.8

France - French: 93.6; Portugese: 1.1; Algerians 1.1; Maroccans 1; Italians 0.4; Spanish 0.4; Turks 0.3; Others 2.1

What are the opinions of INT students regarding immigration policy? Is French culture more inclusive or exclusive?

JOBS What is the average work-week life in France? Is it something like a maximum of 35 hours per week?

35 hours, is the limit for workers/employees.

But most people work more.

JOBS: If 35 hours is the work limit for employees, how is it that most people work more? Do they have more than one job, or are they able to work around the rule somehow?

Or do you mean that they work more than 35 hours, but still get paid the same as they would if they had worked 35 hours?

JOBS : to answer to gayani,

Les 35h sont une nouvelle loi. Avant, les employés et les ouvriers ne travaillaient que 39heures.

En fait, tous les cadres,(ie: les personnes qui ont des responsabilités dans l'entreprise) travaillent plus. Ils sont bien sur payés plus, mais en réalité, la règle ne s'applique vraiment que pour les employés lambda, et les ouvriers.

En france, ce genre de règle ne peut bien évidement pas s'appliquer à tous le monde.

Quant aux ouvriers qui souhaitent travailler plus, je n'en connais pas.

35 heures est en fait la durée legale de travail hebdomadaire. ca veut dire qu'un ouvrier ou un employé est dans la plupart des cas embauché pour 35 heure, et travaille 35heures. Mais on peut evidement faire des heures supplémentaires qui sont payées plus cher que les heures normales et qui sont limitées. N'y a-t-il pas de limite au nombre d'heures travaillées aux états-unis ?

From your comments on the number of working hours, I gather that in France, as everywhere else, we see the new business class that tends to work overtime (management consultants, engineers, programmers, professionals in finance, banking, etc.). These are usually young, well-educated people, entirely devoted to their profession. My question is whether you find this true and what do you think about it. I personally do not favor this trend, because it makes society more secluded, more individualistic and puts work and careerism on top of the values hierarchy.

In response to Thomas, I don't think there is a limit in the U.S. on the number of hours one can work (though i'm not positive). I think there are laws about workers getting paid overtime if they work over 40 hours, but there isn't really a law saying what the maximum work week is. I actually found some data that said that Americans log in more hours per year than workers in any other industrialized country: 67.2% of Americans employees work 40 hours or more, while 8.5% of these work 60 hours or more. This seems like a lot of hours.... Perhaps this supports our previous observation that the lifestyle in the U.S. is fast-paced, while that in Europe is slower?