Hours in Europe

That's much longer than countries like France, which has a 35-hour workweek and a labor law introduced this year discourages workers in the digital and communications industries from accessing work-related e-mails or notifications after office hours, and also discourages employers from pressuring them to do so.

Germany has a similar law and Sweden is considering a 30-hour workweek.

Average workweeks in most developed economies have generally been dropping.

Across the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries (which includes Japan, South Korea and Australia), the average worker put in 1,765 hours of work in 2012, compared to 1,844 hours in 2000.

Still, the average employee in Asia works 2,154 hours per year, 13 percent higher than the global average of 1,915 hours, according to the UBS Prices and Earnings report from 2012 that the investment bank publishes every three years.

But despite the long hours, Asian workers are not necessarily much more productive.