Which Southeast Asian Country Has The Best Work-Life Balance?
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Work-life balance has become an increasingly talked about subject over the past few years. Many workers around the globe seem to have become disillusioned with long work hours and inflexible working conditions and are now demanding a more fair and balanced work lifestyle.
Companies and businesses are now expected to offer their employees a more flexible working environment with acceptable work hours and more flexible working arrangements. Otherwise, they risk losing out on talented employees who wish to avoid burnout.
Malaysia ranked poorly for work life balance. Why?
In June, the index ranked Malaysia second last. Other Southeast Asian countries included in the index are Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
This revelation stirred up heated discussion and debate as to whether Malaysia is really lagging behind many other countries in terms of a balanced lifestyle. However, the index only ranked 60 countries by GDP (gross domestic product). This meant that some other Southeast Asian (SEA) countries such as Myanmar, Timor Leste or Laos are conspicuously absent.
In order to get a clearer picture of which SEA country has the best work-life balance, we did a little digging to compare several more work-life balance studies. Here is what we found:
Are Malaysians overworked?
A 2022 study by Kisi revealed some interesting insights. Kuala Lumpur (KL) was ranked in the top 5 cities that are overworked. Singapore was also on the list, but was ranked one position behind KL, meaning that Singaporeans were apparently less overworked than Malaysians in KL.
The study looked at the percentage of jobs that could be done remotely as well as holiday allowances, unemployment figures, and people who are working multiple jobs. If we take this study into consideration, it is interesting to note that Singapore ranked so highly in the Remote study despite being one of the most overworked cities.
The top SEA countries for work-life balance
When comparing the Remote index with the study published by Insider Monkey Asian countries work-life balance countries, we see that the studies roughly align with each other. While their methodology for research may differ, they both take into consideration average weekly hours worked, leave days, overall happiness, and more. Here’s what the data reveals:
| Index rank | Country | Avg. Weekly Work Hours | Minimum wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | Singapore | 42.60 | n/a |
| 37 | Vietnam | 41.62 | US$1.97 |
| 39 | Thailand | 42.26 | US$1.50 |
| 43 | Indonesia | 40.04 | US$1.18 |
| 47 | Malaysia | 44.70 | US$1.86 |
| 59 | Philippines | 40.63 | US$1.45 |
Sources:
https://remote.com/resources/research/global-life-work-balance-index
https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/20-asian-countries-with-the-best-work-life-balance-1301627/
As we can see, multiple studies have consistently ranked Malaysia rather poorly in terms of work-life balance. While we can argue that some factors that were used to form the ranking can have a more or less relevant impact on worker satisfaction in different countries, it does remain a fact that Malaysians are working significantly more hours than our higher ranked neighbours.
What the data shows about Malaysia’s work life balance
It should also be noted that a few of our neighbouring countries are also noticeably absent from the studies. Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, and Myanmar were not ranked in either of the lists. We do not know exactly why they were not included, but it is likely that their total GDP might have played a part. As such, it is difficult to rank them with so little data collected on their work life balance.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has managed to get some recent data regarding the average weekly hours worked in the countries that were left out by the aforementioned studies. The following table ranks these countries accordingly:
| Rank | Country | Avg. Weekly Working Hours |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | East Timor | 32.4 |
| 2 | Myanmar | 40.9 |
| 3 | Laos | 41.2 |
| 4 | Cambodia | 44.6 |
| 5 | Brunei | 46.6 |
Since we only have one factor to rank these countries by, it is difficult to determine where they would fit into the ranking for top work-life balance in SEA.
While these countries clocked in higher average weekly working hours but comparing Malaysia to them will not be accurate.
GDP, GNI and HDI ranking
Sure, all these countries are also grouped under ‘developing nations’ status like Malaysia. But the comparison becomes less direct from there. This is because there are several ways used to define if a country is classified as ‘developing’ or developed.
Human Development Index (HDI)
The United Nations uses a metric called the Human Development Index (HDI). This index measures economic growth, life expectancy, health, education, and quality of life. A HDI score below 0.80 will put the country under developing nation category.
Based on this metric, Malaysia scores 0.807 which puts us in the fully developed category together with Singapore, Thailand and Brunei.
Indonesia and Vietnam came just under that score which puts them in the higher end of developing nations. Laos, Timor Leste and Cambodia all had scores in the 0.600 range which means they have some years to go to reach the fully developed classification.
Gross National Income (GNI)
The World Bank uses the gross national income (GNI) per capita measurement. Using this yardstick, the World Bank classifies countries and territories whose GNI is $14,005 or higher as high income economies.
Using this GNI measurement, Malaysia has a GNI of $11,830 so we are not considered a high income economy. For comparison, Singapore has a GNI score of $67,200 and Brunei’s score is $31,410. The other Southeast Asian countries all have GNI scores ranging from $7K+ to $1K+.
So where does all this data leave us with?
International labour standards on working time
The main takeaway from these data points is that Malaysia’s official average work week hours is recorded at 44.7. The data shows that Malaysians work at least 2 to 6 hours more than most of our neighbours. Some countries that made the top 10 ranking even recorded less than 33 hours per week!
However, the International Labour Organisation has set the International Labour Standards on working time at 40 hours. Logically, this translates to 8 hours per day for a 5-day work week.
What is not stated in the work-life balance index that ranked Malaysia second last is the number of days per week that are classified as working days.
We can summarise from these data points is that Malaysia’s work-life balance is judged as worse than other Southeast Asian countries who are ranked as less developed but have been included in the index. Malaysia’s minimum wage is also recorded as lower than some of our Southeast Asian counterparts.
Do we assume that work-life balance is supposed to improve as a nation progresses to developed nation status? Judging from the index, that is a fair assumption we can make. With more employees expecting support from their employers in achieving work-life balance, it’s about time Malaysian employers act on prioritising employees well-being at the workplace.
