You can also work fewer hours in the US if you make it your top priority and accept lower pay. That's how German manufacturing unions did it: They had the option to ask for less work or more pay, and they kept picking less work. Some collective bargaining agreements let each individual worker choose whether they want to work less or earn more. It's all tradeoffs.

Yeah, but Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indian employees work longer hours and get paid less.

Even ignore Asia - Poles, Czechs, and other CEE residents work longer hours than Germans yet are similarly as productive (based on GDP per capita) and have caught up developmentally.