After the Belgian study on lunch breaks at work early 2019, job site StepStone follows up with an international comparison all around Europe.
Today, we are presenting the results of this survey with over 10,000 participants in some key neighboring countries.
The Belgian employee takes the shortest lunch break, while his French counterpart takes the longest
Only 22 minutes is what the average lunch break for a Belgian employee consists of – while the British, German & French take respectively 24, 25 & 29 minutes of mealtime. There is also a noticeable difference in the amount of time being allowed by employers.
Underneath, you’ll find a short overview of the time allotted versus the time spent on lunch breaks, according to the participants.
Most European employees don’t take a full lunch break
As underneath graphs show, there is a remarkable percentage of European employees – varying from 49% until a whopping 60% – that does not utilize their full lunch break.
While Germany has a clear number one position, Belgium holds the number two spot of not taking their full lunch break. In France, we see that – contrary to the other shown countries – more than 50% do enjoy their full mealtime.
Too much work to take a lunch break
The main reason for not taking a full lunch break is similar across all countries: there is simply too much work to be done. Ranging from Germany, Belgium, Austria & the United Kingdom, 65-75% feel this way. In France, 41% of the participants said they did not take their lunch break, because of said reason.
Other mentioned reasons are the possibility of leaving work early and having to take on tasks from colleagues.