Jeb Bush, Americans Already Work Longer Hours. See These Charts.

We made it simple for the leading GOP candidate.

Jim Cole/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


In one of the most Mitt-esque comments of the 2016 campaign (so far), Jeb Bush, a man who made millions through family and political connections, said on Wednesday that “people should work longer hours” in order to expand the US economy. Really? Stressed-out Americans, some juggling more than one job, ought to spend more time toiling at work? Bush was practically saying that 47 percent of Americans don’t take enough responsibility for the economic good of the nation.

Naturally, Dems and others pounced on this very 1-percent-ish remark. And Team Jeb—or as he might put it, Team Jeb!—rushed to the fire with pails of cold water, claiming that Bush had been talking only about underemployed part-time workers. One problem: in his original comment, Bush did not indicate he was only referring to part-timers who crave more hours. Oops.

Americans who do work are hardly lazing about. According to a 2014 Gallup poll, Americans employed full-time worked an average of 47 hours a week. Almost half worked over 50 hours a week. In fact, American workers spend more hours on the job than those in other large, industrialized nations, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

So telling them to work more is quite Romney-like. Maybe they should eat cake, too.

A few years ago, Mother Jones did a special report on the “Great Speedup”—the phenomenon in which greater productivity (some of it based on Americans working longer hours) yields higher corporate profits but not higher wages. The article included several charts highlighting the overworking of Americans. For Jeb Bush’s benefit, here are three of the most relevant:

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate