Are you risking your health by working too much?

In order to stay healthy, people should not be working more than 39 hours per week, according to new research.

However, two out of three full-time employees in Australia regularly work more than 40 hours per week.

“Long work hours erode a person’s mental and physical health, because it leaves less time to eat well and look after themselves properly,” said Dr Huong Dinh, lead researcher at the ANU Research School of Population Health.

Dinh suggests that for women, a healthy paid work limit is 34 hours per week, while men can safely work up to 47 hours per week because they do not spend as much time on care and unpaid domestic work.

“Despite the fact that women on average are as skilled as men, women on average have lower paid jobs and less autonomy than men, and they spend much more time on care and domestic work,” he said.

“Given the extra demands placed on women, it’s impossible for women to work long hours often expected by employers unless they compromise their health.”

The research used data from about 8000 Australian adults as part of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey.

Co-researcher Professor Lyndall Strazdins from the ANU Research School of Population Health said Australia needed to resolve some of the bigger problems that affect work and home life balance.

“Australia needs to do more to change attitudes to work and to support men to take time to care without penalty or prejudice. Australians also need to dispel the widespread belief that people need to work long hours to do a good job,” she said.

The research is published in Social Science & Medicine.

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