BARCELONA, Spain -- When Kristin K. Lay began planning her wedding for next May, she discovered a clause in Spanish employment law that boggled her American mind: She and her fiance, Bart-Jan H. LePoole, were entitled to a "honeymoon leave" of three weeks vacation, fully paid.

"I was surprised," said Lay, who teaches chemistry at an international school here. "I had never heard of a benefit like this. In the United States, we would have had to wait and plan the honeymoon for summer or Christmas."

If Lay and LePoole eventually start a family, they can share 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, too, also required by law. And they'd get still more in other European countries. Sweden provides 360 days of maternity leave at 80 percent of full salary.

Such generous perks are common throughout Europe, where it is often said that people "work to live" rather than "live to work" as Americans do. Among the benefits most Europeans enjoy: work weeks as short as 35 hours, 40 days of paid vacation and cash bonuses for vacation travel.

But in the face of global competition to improve productivity, the European workplace is being forced to Americanize. During the past few months alone, new labor agreements in Germany, France and other countries have convinced experts the tide is turning.

"In Germany, there is a clear trend to longer working hours," said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, who directs a noted industry research center at the University of Gelsenkirchen. "The 35-hour work week will be given up step-by-step and, in my opinion, in about two years will no longer exist in Germany."

Other benefits also are on the endangered list. German workers now are guaranteed 30 days of vacation each year, plus time off with full pay for about 10 national holidays. As the German work week moves toward 40 hours, employers will whittle away at holidays and vacations, Dudenhoeffer predicted.

Martin Werding, who heads the labor department at Germany's Institute for Economic Research, said the trend began in the late 1990s but attracted little public attention because it was confined to small local and regional companies. This year, however, big global companies like Siemens, DaimlerChrysler, and General Motors' Opel division also have launched efforts to stretch work weeks.

"It is highly likely that this will invite managers in many more firms to take up negotiations for similar agreements," Werding said. "The trend will certainly gain momentum."

Harley Shaiken, a University of California-Berkeley professor who specializes in labor economics, said European companies are responding to competitive pressures that industry faces everywhere.

"In the U. S., the drive to cut costs is more targeted to lower wages and reduced benefits -- especially health care," Shaiken said. "Employers have targeted the shorter work week in Europe because they view it as more achievable than, say, cutting jobs or lowering wages. I suspect we will see fierce and continuing employer pressure to extend the work week throughout Europe."

Things remain cushy for workers in many European countries, however.

Each year, Europeans work up to 12 weeks less than Americans, according to the International Labor Organization. Generous vacations are guaranteed by law and transportable, so that even the newest hires often get a minimum of 20 days off each year. Americans average 10 days.

Workers have been especially pampered in France and Germany.

A French law in 2000 cut the work week to 35 days for two out of three workers, with a goal of lowering unemployment by spreading work among more employees. French workers also get 25-30 days of vacation plus a dozen bank holidays.

Over the border in Germany, the 35-hour work week has been enshrined in custom and labor agreements. Even a newly hired factory worker gets an average 30 days of vacation and a slew of national holidays.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in 2003 French workers put in an average of 1,453 hours, while Germans worked 1,446 and the Americans: 1,792.

In June, unions at two Siemens mobile telephone factories in Germany signed a landmark contract, agreeing to increase the work week from 35 hours to 40 with no extra pay. Workers also gave up bonuses that many used to finance vacations. Instead, they will get bonuses based on productivity improvements.

In July, French workers at Robert Bosch auto parts plant in Lyon agreed to work 40 hours for the same pay, in a challenge to the French work week law. The French government so far has not opposed the contract.

Over the summer, security guards, cafeteria workers and other support staff at DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes division in Sindelfingen, Germany, agreed to work 39 hours for 35 hours' pay. In Belgium, the Marichal Ketin steel company told its staff to work 40 hours instead of 36 for the same pay. Recently, 32,000 workers in General Motors' European Opel division offered to extend their workweek to 40 hours without a pay raise in order to save 10,000 jobs.

Some governments are moving in the same direction. The Bavarian government, for instance, increased the work week for 140,000 civil servants from 40 hours to 42. The national government wants to extend the work week for federal employees from 38.5 to 40 hours.

Government leaders, including German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac support a longer work week. Dutch economy minister Laurens Jan Brinjhorst has urged a return to the 40-hour work week throughout The Netherlands.

The move away from a leisure society began with concern about loss of jobs to China and other Asian countries with lower labor costs, Werding said. It shifted into high gear in May, when 10 new countries joined the European Union.

They include Eastern European countries like the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary where workers are less pampered. Wages in the Czech Republic, for instance, are 40 percent less than in France or Germany. Employees work longer and get less vacation.

Concern about jobs migrating to Eastern Europe helped several companies, including DaimlerChrysler and Siemens, get longer hours and other concessions from workers.

"Extending working hours without adjusting pay is an elegant approach to reducing labor costs," Werding noted. "Workers at least suffer no loss in their regular income."

Government officials in France and Germany also have floated trial balloons about reducing the number of holiday and vacation days. But those perks so far remain untouched.

Dudenhoeffer doubts whether such leisure society mainstays will be around for long. Within the next 5 years, he predicted, European perks will look a lot like those in the United States.