Shorter working weeks promise greater freedom and a more sustainable economy. But if rich countries work less while continuing to rely heavily on labour abroad, those gains may come at the expense of global fairness, new NMBU research suggests.
Calls for shorter working hours are gaining support in many countries. If workers become more productive, the argument goes, societies could benefit from more free time instead of continued economic growth.
But new research from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences suggests the debate overlooks a crucial question: who does the work behind the lifestyles that make shorter working hours possible in high-income countries?
Researcher Lukas Godé examined what this means for debates about the future of work, sustainability, and global justice.
His research stresses that achieving shorter working hours in high-income countries can conceal increased reliance on foreign labour through global trade.
"Working time reduction is often discussed within national borders. But in today's globalised economy, the work behind what we consume is distributed across countries," says Godé.
Looking beyond national borders
Previous research suggests that an imbalance exists in global trade: high-income countries depend on large amounts of work performed abroad, while contributing far less work to produce exports in return.
Godé’s research explores the potential global injustices arising from this imbalance, and related implications for the proposal of reducing working time.
He proposes an alternative to the mainstream view that trade is necessarily mutually beneficial, offering a framework for considering what a fair international distribution of labour might look like. This framework assesses the imbalances mentioned above with concerns for equality, productivity, history, and the principle that everyone should be able to achieve a decent standard of living.
Norwegian consumption relies on work abroad
Part of Godé’s research focuses on Norway.
The findings show that many of the goods and services consumed in Norway rely on labour supplied by workers in other countries. For manufactured goods, the dependence is particularly strong. According to the study, 95 per cent of the labour involved in producing manufactured products consumed in Norway was supplied abroad in 2022, mainly in Asian countries.
The analysis also found a large imbalance in labour exchange.
"For every hour of paid work devoted to exports, more than seven hours of foreign labour are mobilised abroad to produce commodities consumed in Norway," says Godé.
A different story in Germany
Godé also examined Germany to determine whether productivity gains there had been achieved by moving work abroad. This could, for example, happen when a car manufacturer specializes in final assembly stages and increasingly relies on foreign subcontractors to produce components.
He found that, in Germany between 1995 and 2020, productivity improvements were not driven by increasing reliance on labour in foreign supply chains.
This suggests that some productivity gains could be converted into shorter working hours without increasing reliance on labour supplied abroad.
A trade-off emerges
The overall picture remains complex.
While the German findings suggest that productivity gains can be turned into shorter working hours without increasing labour offshoring, the Norwegian findings show how heavily a high-income country can depend on labour performed abroad, for example through imports of ready-made goods.
Taken together, the results point to a challenge at the heart of the debate. Reducing working hours without further increasing reliance on foreign labour may be achievable. But doing so while advancing global justice may prove more difficult.
"Achieving a fair international distribution of labour would likely imply that high-income countries compensate with domestic labour for the net surpluses of foreign labour from low-income countries which they currently benefit from. At least temporarily, that could limit the potential for reductions in working time," says Godé.
Neither against international trade nor shorter working hours
This thesis is not making a case against international trade. Instead, it suggests making trade conditional on greater fairness for all countries.
Likewise, Godé does not conclude that working time reduction should be abandoned. How much people work in the future will depend not only on productivity gains, but also on consumption patterns, environmental limits, and the global distribution of labour.
The challenge, according to the research, is to improve quality of life while reducing both environmental pressures and global inequalities.
"Reconciling global justice with working time reduction would be facilitated by prioritising production activities motivated by social and environmental goals, rather than the current dominating purpose of maximising profits," concludes Godé.
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Lukas Godé will defend his thesis ‘The international distribution of labour: Fairness and post-growth implications’ on 19th August at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). See the event webpage for details.
