Mexicans aren't lazy. Belgians are.

GlobalPost

It's a bad day for people who throw around ugly national stereotypes.

The "Mexicans are lazy" slur has a long and distateful history in the United States stretching back to Speedy Gonzales and forward to Google, where a search for "lazy Mexicans" yields 1.25 million results.

But that might be about to change — to the benefit of Mexicans, and to the detriment of Belgians.

A report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says Mexicans work more hours each day than any other OECD nation.

Mexicans spend 10 hours a day working, including paid and unpaid work like cooking, cleaning and shopping.

Belgians spend the least amount of total work each day at 7 hours. The OECD average, by the way, is 8 hours per day.

Here's how the top ten countries break down in hours worked, according to the OECD:

1. Mexico (10 hours)

2. Japan

3. Portugal

4. Canada

5. Estonia

6. Austria

7. China

8. New Zealand

9. United States

10. Slovenia

Nine of the bottom ten countries come from Europe, with South Africa as the sole African nation on the list of 26 countries:

1. Belgium (7 hours)

2. Denmark

3. Germany

4. South Africa

5. France

6. Netherlands

7. Finland

8. Norway

9. UK

10. Italy

Here are some more interesting tidbits pulled from the report, which examined a variety of social and economic factors:

  • Most unpaid work is housework. Mexicans do the most, at more than 3 hours per day, and Koreans the least, at 1 hour and 19 minutes. Much of this time is spent cooking. Americans spend the least time cooking each day (30 minutes) and Turks the most in the OECD (74 minutes). Most people spend around 50 minutes a day cooking.
  • Shopping also makes up a big part of unpaid work. Most people in OECD countries spend 23 minutes a day shopping, with the French spending the most (32 minutes) and the Koreans the least (13 minutes).
  • The value of unpaid work is considerable— about one-third of GDP in OECD countries, ranging from a low of 19 percent in Korea to a high of 53 percent in Portugal – making an important contribution to the well-being of all OECD societies.

As for the United States? We're fat, but generous, the OECD says:

  • 34 percent of Americans are obese, compared with the OECD average of 17 percent.
  • 60 percent of Americans volunteer their time and money to help strangers, the highest percentage in the world.
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