That is completely field dependent. I worked many years of retail and a bit of construction before eventually becoming a software engineer. In my experience, both retail and construction can easily have 9 hours of work in a 10 hour workday. Now that I'm a software engineer, your comment is more akin to my experience with the amount of actual work getting done, while the rest of the work week is filled with time wasting things, like meetings and such.

Also, sick days and vacations are frowned upon, especially in retail, because these kind of places are always trying to get away with the least amount of staff that they can. It's like the lower paid, 'unskilled'(no such thing), workers work harder and for less benefits than everybody else. They know they can get away with it, because these people are living paycheck to paycheck, and can't afford to protest anyways.