Indian worker clocks 3.5% more toil than average Chinese worker

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Doubt not the slog of Indian workers, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said, for, despite the widespread impression that Indian workers don’t sweat enough, they are, in fact, the sixth hardest working population out of a list of 163 countries, ILO data show.

In the process, the average Indian worker toils 3.5% more than an average Chinese worker, widely perceived to be one of the most disciplined and diligent workers on this planet.

The ranking of how workers sweat it out is based on calculating the average number of hours per week for each employed person in the country. The Business Standard has reported quoting ILO data of April 2023 that, on average a worker clocks 47.7 hours of work in India. In comparison, the average Chinese worker works 46.1 hours a week.

The report comes against the backdrop of Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy recently stating that youths should work put in 70 hours a week to build the country and thereby, triggering a nationwide debate.

Not only the Chinese, but the Indian worker also labours hard enough to leave behind the average worker from Vietnam (clocks 41.5 hours/week), Malaysia (43.2 hours), the Philippines (39.2 hours), Japan (36.6 hours), the United States (36.4 hours) and the United Kingdom (359 hours). If one considers Japanese workers – popularly perceived to be the most hard-working and disciplined lot – the average worker puts in 36.6 hours a week. In other words, an Indian worker toils 30% more than his/her Japanese counterpart. South Korean and German workers work for 37.9 and 34.3 hours respectively.

The countries where the average worker toils more than Indians are small nations such as Gambia, Bhutan, the Congo, Lesotho.

However, India lags many countries in productivity. It ranks a poor 131 in a league of 189 countries. The parameter employed here is the GDP per hour calculate for 2021 – GDP constant at 2017 – adjusted for purchasing power parity.

The value of GDP/hour for India is $8.47. This is lower than Malaysia ($25.59), Mexico ($20.23), China ($13.35), Indonesia ($12.96), Vietnam ($10.22/hour) and Philippines ($10.07). India directly competes with these countries for foreign direct investment and/or exports.

Seen through another prism, labour productivity as measured in terms of annual growth rate output per worker in percentage terms, India’s annual improvement in 2022 was lower than countries such as Vietnam and China. While India gained 3.1% in 2022, manufacturing competitors of the country such as Vietnam gained 4.8% and China gained 3.4%. India’s eastern neighbour Bangladesh improved by 4.1% while Cambodia gained 3.6%.

The years 2019 and 2020 were not good for Indian workers. On the output per worker metric India witnessed a decline in 2019 (by 29%) and 2020 (by 2%), China recorded rise of 6.4% in 2019 and 6% in 2020. India recovered to 3.5% in 2021 on this parameter while China decelerated to 3.6%.

Indian workers, on the other hand, are very poorly paid. Quoting a Morgan Stanley Research, the report stated that manufacturing wages in India are $0.8 per hour. In China, these wages are 800% higher. Malaysia pays its workers 6 times or 600% more. Indonesia clocks $1/hour and is the closest to what an average Indian worker is paid.

Significantly, the ILO has already stated that nowhere in the world is the 70-hours-week rule followed as stated by the Infosys co-founder. The highest in this regard is the UAE which has slightly more than 52 hours per week.