Standard working hours in Asia

Everybody’s talking about how traditional 9 to 5 jobs are dying out in favor of the pros and cons of flexible working schedules. But, we cannot help, but wonder: are we working more, now, with greater flexibility, or we’re at the same eight hours work span? We decided to cover standard working hours in Asia in this blog post. However, we cannot even start this article without looking into what our work hours looked like during the past century.

The standard 40-hours workweek is a recent thing believe it or not. In the U.S. the law was passed in the 1940s, and before 1817 people worked up to 100 hours a week! And even though lots of things have changed for the West, the East remained one of the most vicious working environments of the modern age. 

Working Hours in Asia: Country-by-Country Breakdown

• Singapore: Employees are working eight hours per day and 44 hours per week.
• Malaysia: Employees are working eight hours per day and 48 hours per week.
• Indonesia: Employees are working 40 hours per week, with seven hours per day for a six-day workweek or eight hours per day for a five-day workweek.
• Hong Kong: There are no statutory provisions on working hours for employees aged 18 and above.
• China: Employees are working eight hours per day and 40 hours per week.
• Japan: Employees are working eight hours per day and 40 hours per week.
• Thailand: Employees are working eight hours per day and 48 hours per week.

The state with the longest working hours in Asia, South Korea, starts to change the opinion

The country with the highest number of working hours in Asia, South Korea, passed a law in July 2018. They reduced their working week from 68 hours to 53 hours to boost the productivity of their workers. Boosting productivity was not the sole reason behind this decision. The South Korean government believes a shorter workweek will increase the country’s birth rate.

The Myth of Long Hours and Productivity

Working more doesn’t always equal boosted productivity. Quite the contrary. In a recent experiment, the company Perpetual Guardian gave their employees an extra day off every week, with no change in pay and employment conditions. And despite the reduced hours, employees saw an increase in productivity and satisfaction by up to 20 percent! 

Japan is another Asian country known for long working hours, however, they seem unable to cash in them. That’s why they’ve started cutting down overtime and using other tactics to increase productivity in their employees which we can see in the chart below.

What Can Help: Better Time and Leave Management

We’ve learned that standard working hours in Asia are above average compared to the rest of the world. Shorter working hours and regular vacations can result in a productivity boost. And engagement and overall satisfaction will follow.

A Leave Management Tool for Hardworking Teams

Vacation Tracker was made with one sole intention in our mind. And that’s to effectively use the time we spend working and have equally spread vacations and days off to help employees stay energized and motivated.

With our leave management solution, you can request, approve and manage your PTO in just a few clicks, directly from Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Workspace. Our tool makes it easy for users to customize their leave tracking experience. This includes creating their own locations, leave policies, leave types, and much more. In addition, users can take advantage of our online dashboard to export reports, get daily/weekly notifications, integrate with an external calendar, and much more. Sounds interesting? Try it free today! And it doesn’t cost anything to try others: sign up for a free 7-day trial and take Vacation Tracker for a spin!

Take the guesswork
out of time off tracking.

Know exactly who's off and when—no spreadsheets, no surprises.

Sign up for free

No credit card required.