Long work hours in salaried employment and self-employement Measures and problems

A gap of more than 10 hours separates the weekly working hours of employees and self-employed. This article questions this specificity using data from the French Labour force survey. We found evidence of a systematic cleavage between employees and self-employed, even within single professions. Yet self-employment does not always translate in the same way. Different hourly patterns can be identified and linked to social characteristics. These findings are used to reassess current interpretations and research questions.