December 21, 2015 4:23PM 

# Senator Sanders and the Average Workweek 

By [Chelsea Follett](https://www.cato.org/people/chelsea-follett) 

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Senator Bernie Sanders recently [tweeted](https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/676874383470813185) the following.

![Media Name: sanders.tweet_.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/download-remote-images/humanprogress.org/276590265952/sanders.tweet_.png?itok=6W9Z31zl) 

Fortunately, the gruelingly long workweek described by Sanders is not the norm. In fact, leisure time has been [on the rise](http://humanprogress.org/story/2246). In 1950, an average U.S. worker worked 1,984 hours a year, or about 38 hours a week. In 2015, an average American worker worked 1,767 hours, or about 34 hours a week.

![Media Name: work.hours_.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/download-remote-images/humanprogress.org/13211374178/work.hours_.png?itok=qBg5WQAo) 

That means that the average U.S. worker had *217* more hours for leisure or other pursuits in 2015 than in 1950. That is about 9 days of extra time.

The 50-hour workweek described by Sanders is more common in China, where the average worker worked 2,432 hours in 2015, or around 47 hours a week. [Compare other countries](http://humanprogress.org/story/2246) using HumanProgress.org’s interactive dataset.

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