In Italy, 12.5 million men and women work over 40 hours a week

Brussels – In 2024, over half of all workers in Italy worked over the 40 hours per week envisioned by regulations. It means that employees are working beyond what they should, and, therefore, in defiance of the rules, or that many Italians are grappling with the employment crisis. The data that Eurostat releases today (October 7) on hours worked in the European Union once again highlights a reality – the Italian labor market – that has long been recognized as problematic. 

Of the more than 23 million Italians between the ages of 20 and 64 in employment, 42.8 percent (approximately 9.6 million men and women) claim to have worked up to 44.5 hours per week. Then there is a small portion of Italians of all ages who claim to have worked between 45 and 49.5 hours per week (4.7 percent, approximately 1.1 million). Finally, there is a segment of workers (approximately 1.6 million, or 6.9 percent) who also work more than 50 hours a week.

It is hard to say whether it is a five, six, or even seven-day working week. What is certain is that in total, therefore, 12.5 million Italians are struggling with a rather long working week. Blame it on a system that overly rewards atypical contracts and VAT-registered self-employment. The figure that seems to emerge from the data of the European Statistical Office appears to confirm this very nature of working outside the contract, since even in the second quarter of 2025, 10.8 percent of the employed 20-64 year olds in the EU worked over 45 hours per week “in their main job and in their second job combined,” proving that there is a problem with contracts and wages.

 In the Italian case, this is even more evident, given the paradox of Italians who work so hard yet still face the risk of poverty, as well as the warning even from the European Environment Agency.