Report: NYC's Commute, Work Hours Make For Longest Workweek
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Between commuting time and work hours, New York City residents have the longest workweeks among the country's 30 biggest cities, city Comptroller Scott Stringer said in a report released Tuesday.
The report said a typical week for a full-time New York worker adds up to more than 49 hours, including an average of more than six hours of commuting time.
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"That says that New Yorkers are not going to be as competitive if people are being drained by a very long commute," Stringer told reporters, including WCBS 880's Rich Lamb.
New Yorkers, for example, work more than four hours longer than people in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the average workweek was about 44 1/2 hours. Commuting time made up just under 3 1/2 hours of that.
The report was based on data from the U.S. Census from 1990 and 2000 and the 2013 American Community Survey.
Stringer said New Yorkers on average commute one hour longer per week than workers in other major American cities.
"After you do it a number of years, you get used to it," one Staten Island resident told 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck.
"It's pretty upsetting, but what can you do?" said another man. "I'm exhausted at the end of the day. I wish I could do more."
Stringer said commuting times were longer for lower-wage workers, who were more likely than higher-wage workers to live in parts of the city that aren't as well-served by public transportation. Security guards, for example, spent more than eight hours a week commuting on average.
Stringer said the report showed a need for the city to expand its transit networks, as well as promote flexible work arrangements along with predictable scheduling.
"If New York City is going to symbolize the American Dream, we can't be a nightmare when it comes to long work hours and commuting,'' Stringer said. "Our residents deserve better.''
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