Millions of Indonesian Workers Endure Extreme Hours: How Long Each Day?

While many nations are beginning to discuss four-day work weeks or work-life balance, long working hours remain a reality for tens of millions of workers in Indonesia.

Nearly two-thirds of Indonesian workers now work at least 35 hours per week. However, behind the dominance of full-time hours, about one-quarter of workers still spend 49 hours or more working per week. This means that across a seven-day week, the average working time is 6.8 hours. When calculated over a five-day work week, the average becomes even longer, reaching 9.6 hours, or nearly 10 hours per day.

Full-time working hours are now dominant. The majority of Indonesian workers currently fall into the 35-48 hours per week category. As of February 2026, this group accounts for 39.46% of the entire working population, making it the largest compared to other working hour categories. This figure is a slight decrease from August 2025 (40.43%), but remains higher than February 2025 (38.93%).

Meanwhile, workers with 1-34 working hours reached 33.23%, workers working 49 hours or more stood at 26.06%, while those temporarily not working accounted for only about 1.24%. This composition shows that the Indonesian labour market is increasingly dominated by full-time employment. However, behind this shift, there remains a group of workers who work far beyond normal durations.

A quarter of workers still work excessively. Approximately 26.06% of Indonesian workers are recorded as working 49 hours or more every week. Given the current working population, this proportion is equivalent to about 29.3 million people. If the total number of workers in Indonesia reaches 147.67 million, then approximately 38 million people work 49 hours a day [sic - context implies weekly/extended hours].

The 49-hour weekly limit is not chosen arbitrarily. In the labour statistics used by the International Labour Organization (ILO), this group is classified as ‘excessive hours of work’. This means this group does not merely perform overtime at specific times; they routinely work beyond the hours internationally considered to be the normal limit.

Men work significantly longer hours. Disparities are also visible when data is disaggregated by gender. In February 2026, 28.96% of male workers worked at least 49 hours per week. This figure is higher than that of female workers, which stood at 21.70%.

Conversely, women are more likely to be in the 1-34 hours per week group. Their proportion reached 43.93%, whereas for men it was 26.63%. This difference does not automatically imply that women work less; some women work part-time, while others divide their time between domestic work and caregiving responsibilities that are not recorded as paid working hours. Consequently, extremely long working hours are more commonly found among male workers, while women are more frequently in the shorter working hour groups.

Long working hours do not necessarily equate to higher productivity. Long working hours are often linked to productivity, but the relationship between the two is not always linear. The International Labour Organization (ILO) uses the category of ‘excessive hours of work’ because excessively long hours are linked to increased risks of health issues, fatigue, workplace accidents, and disrupted work-life balance.

Therefore, the quality of work is no longer measured solely by whether someone has a job, but also by how much time they must spend to maintain their income.

It is no longer just a matter of employment opportunities. In recent years, the structure of Indonesian working hours has indeed shown improvement. The proportion of workers with excessive hours continues to decline, while the group of workers with 35-48 working hours per week has become the largest. Nevertheless, the number of workers working at least 49 hours every week still reaches approximately 29.3 million people. This means the challenge for the Indonesian labour market is no longer just about creating new jobs. The next debate shifts towards the quality of employment: not just whether someone is working, but how much time they must sacrifice to earn a decent living.