Are Mediterranean Countries Lazy?

There is an idea, which I think receives pretty much attention from the public, about Greece and sometimes about other Mediterranean countries including Turkey, particularly after 2008’s global economic crisis: “Greece (or Turkey or another Mediterranean country) has bad economic conditions because people living there are lazy.” Or: “People in the countries of Northern Europe such as Germany, Netherlands or Denmark work a lot while people in Greece (and so) lay around. Then again, countries like Germany, Netherland (and so) pay for the cost of economic crisis.” High rates of unemployment in Mediterranean countries are given as evidence to prove that idea. In this article, I am going to try showing that this idea does not have any empirical proof; on the contrary, working people in countries with higher rates of unemployment like Turkey (and other Mediterranean countries) sacrifice a lot.

25 February 2018, Caner Özdemir

When we check average working hours from ILO’s (International Labour Organization) data, we see that Turkey is at the top of the list among other OECD countries (See Graphic 1). Turkey is one of the most working countries with 47 working hours a week. Greece is also at the top with 41 hours. People in Portugal, Spain and Italy also work more than average. On the other hand, people in Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Denmark work less than 35 hours a week. This might be a result of common part-time working in the countries of Northern Europe but we can check that with another data. When we look at the percentage of people working more than 48 hours a week, Turkey is also at the top. According to ILO’s data, 36% of people in Turkey worked more than 48 hours a week in 2015. This percentage is below 10% in the countries of Northern Europe.

I think everyone can guess the thing about monthly wages. As can be seen in Graphic 2, the lowest rate of average wages are seen in countries with highest rate of working hours like Turkey and Greece. On the other hand, countries with lowest rate of working hours have the highest wages. Thus, people who work the most earn the least.

Lastly, I would like to draw the attention to statistics of employment. According to ILO’s calculations, highest rates of unemployment are respectively in Greece, Italy, Turkey and Spain while the countries of Northern Europe have the lowest rate (See Graphic 3).

To sum up: Mediterranean countries that are blamed to be lazy, particularly Turkey, have the longest working hours and the lowest wages relatively to the countries of Northern Europe. Regarding the high rates of participation in labour force, we can say that there is not any problem of laziness in the Mediterranean countries but the value of labour is very low. We can also say that a job fulfilled by two workers in the countries of Northern Europe is done by only one worker and for a very low price in the Mediterranean countries. This can also be the cause of highest rates of unemployment in the Mediterranean countries. Because, looking at these numbers suggest that if working hours became like in Northern countries, many other people could participate in labour force. It seems like; the problem is not laziness but it is the trivializing of labour.