I moved to Australia and noticed a huge difference that I can’t get over: ‘You would have to pay me $1 million to move back to America’
An American expat talks about a big change she’s noticed in Australia since moving to Sydney.
Brooke Laven, a fitness industry brand strategist, previously worked in the US, South Korea and Chile before heading to Down Under in early 2023.
Of the three, she said Aussies have “the perfect work-life balance” and “work hard” but “know when to draw the line.”
‘I have a Thai roommate and recently asked him what he thought of Australia. He said, ‘Oh man, they work so hard,'” Brooke said in one video.
‘Then I had a conversation with my British colleagues who said ‘work here has been so easy compared to London’.’
Brooke Laven (pictured) previously worked in the US, South Korea and Chile before moving to Australia. Of all three, she claims Aussies have ‘the perfect work-life balance’ and ‘work hard’ but ‘know when to draw the line’
She did her own research and found an online report on it Treasury which analyzed the productivity of Australian workers.
The document claims that Australians are ’20 percent less productive than Americans’, which has risen from 75 to 80 percent since the mid-1980s.
“This is comparing hours worked versus GDP (gross domestic product),” Brooke said.
The report states: ‘If Australian workers were as productive as their US counterparts in terms of output per hour, hours worked per capita would determine GDP per capita relative to the US.
“Similarly, if Australian and American workers worked similar hours, then relative labor productivity would determine relative incomes.”
However, many pointed out that full-time working Aussies get four weeks of annual leave each year, while Americans get just 13 days, which would affect the report’s results.
Others agreed, saying Australians ‘work to live, not live to work’
‘We have a lot more leave in Australia. Does that calculation include that? If not, that explains the difference,” one commented.
“We have quite a strong union presence in Australia compared to the US. We work to live, not live to work,” another wrote.
A third said, “It depends. I work for business and it’s 12 hours a day every day. Plus weekends, which I don’t get paid for.’
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