Who works harder?

Geoff Colvin, in Fortune magazine, writes that Europeans work as hard as Americans, if you take into consideration the amount of unpaid work that Europeans do (gardening, cooking etc) which Americans normally pay others to do.

He quotes a study carried out by Harvard and Utrecht Universities: "By working long hours and taking short vacations, Americans earn money to buy goods in the market. By working fewer hours and taking long vacations, Germans have more time to produce goods at home."

The article also gives interesting insights into the differences in work patterns in Europe and in the USA and touches on relative levels of unemployment and women's salaries.

So, which model do you prefer: lower pay but more holidays, or higher pay and fewer holidays?