and
Americans work around 1,950 hours, the typical German takes it comparatively easy at 1,600
hours a year. Moreover, in contrast with the much-marveled-at Japanese tendency to give up
vacation time for the sake of the firm, Germans take their paid holidays for granted, and by
American standards they are numerous indeed. Some absenteeism owing to “illness” on Fridays,
Mondays, and around holidays was also noted by our Japanese informants. Low working hours
do not, on the other hand, convert into lower annual pay: in 1990, 88 percent of the German GNP
went to workers, as opposed to 80 percent in the United States and 69 percent in Japan.
With high German wages and complex work rules, Japanese companies view German
working hours as a significant cost to investment in Germany, and it is a factor in the limited
managers