Medieval Peasants Might Have Worked as Few as 150 Days Per Year
James Pilkington, a Bishop of Durham, complained thus about all the breaks taken by peasants: “The laboring man will take his rest long in the morning; a good piece of the day is spent afore he come at his work; then he must have his breakfast, though he have not earned it at his accustomed hour, or else there is grudging and murmuring; when the clock smiteth, he will cast down his burden in the midway, and whatsoever he is in hand with, he will leave it as it is, though many times it is marred afore he come again; he may not lose his meat, what danger soever the work is in. At noon he must have his sleeping time, then his bever in the afternoon, which spendeth a great part of the day;
and when his hour cometh at night, at the first stroke of the clock he casteth down his tools, leaveth his work, in what need or case soever the work standeth.” Between slack time and holidays, a medieval peasant might get away with 150 days of work in a good harvest year. By contrast, an American worker would be lucky to get eight vacation days in a year, as the US “continues to be the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers paid vacations. Although we work more hours than medieval peasants, at least we don’t have it as bad as nineteenth-century American workers: they put in around 3650 hours annually. That was almost double the 2023 American worker’s average of 1892 hours a year.