I'm trying to find out how many hours/week the average employee works
in the major English-speaking nations. Please compare the US, the UK,
Canada, and Australia in terms of how hard people work.

For a $5 tip, instead of getting info on employees in general in these
countries, get info specifically on people working in the software
industry in these countries.

Here's some info, I'll leave the question open so someone can look for
software industry figures...

Minutes per day worked by women:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/lab_tot_wor_tim_fem

Minutes per day worked by women:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/lab_tot_wor_tim_mal

International Labor Organization
Annual hours worked per person, 9 developed economies, 1990-2001
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/kilm/kilm06.htm

Some info from the UN on how people use their time (including work
hours), for various countries:
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/timeuse/index.htm

From experience in Sydney Australia it varies widely even in the same
company. I would say about half work the standard 40 hours per week
and the over half work 50-60 hours per week. Again, from experience,
the more experienced you are the more hours you work! I wish the pay
went up proportionally!