Study: New Yorkers Work Hardest, Have Longest Commute, Live in Hell
New York City's comptroller, Scott Stringer, released details from a study on Wednesday that concluded New Yorkers work the longest workweeks in comparison to 29 other major American cities when our commuting hours are taken into account. The average New Yorker spends over six hours a week commuting. Hell. HELL!
Here, have someone else (the office of Scott Stringer) tell you about this shit:
Comptroller Stringer's study examined microdata from the 1990 and 2000 census and the 2013 American Community Survey to evaluate trends in work and commuting hours. The analysis found that full-time workers in New York City spend slightly more time at work than do workers in the next 29 largest cities, but they also spend about two hours more per week commuting — an average of 6 hours and 18 minutes per week. The combined work and commuting workweeks of New York City workers averages over 49 hours – three to four hours longer than in some other large cities.
Work longer hours. Spend more time on subways and buses. Can't even afford to live here.
The impact that crazy work hours and crazier commutes has on the New York City workforce, unsurprisingly, affects lower-wage workers and mothers the most. As Stringer's press release points out, "While employees in higher paid sectors can afford to live closer to the City's core in areas well-served by mass transit, lower-wage workers increasingly live in neighborhoods outside the city's job core–forcing them to spend more time commuting and less time with family." The lowest number of mothers participate in the New York workforce compared to the 29 other cities studied.
Stringer's study found that the average commute for residents of Los Angeles was about 4 hours 38 minutes a week. What do you do with that extra hour-and-forty-minutes, Angelenos?
What did Stringer conclude from releasing this report? That we all live in hell?
"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. Our residents deserve better. We need to give New Yorkers a 21st century transit system and better utilize women's skills so that they don't have to choose between work and family."
Hell.
[Image via AP]
