Paper Title
Comparison of Theoretical Man-Hour Values and Practical Man-Hour Values in Turkey

Abstract
In construction projects most of the resources are used in the construction phase. Therefore, the cost and time of each construction activity are the main determinants of the total project cost and time. In this aspect, for an effective project management it is crucial to calculate the cost and time of activities accurately. The main data for calculating the time and accordingly the cost of an activity is the labor productivity rate. Since, labor productivity is affected by many factors; its value rate varies from region to region. This circumstance, forced academicians and industry participants to measure labor productivity rates for a specific region. One of the commonly used terms for expressing labor productivity in construction industry is the man-hour value. This value is simply defined as the time required for a labor to finish unit work amount and is widely used by planning engineers for cost and time analysis. Although, the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization publishes every year the man-hour values for many construction activities; it is believed that these values are not appropriate for all regions in Turkey. In this study it was assumed that labors can better evaluate the time they require to finish unit work amount compared to on site measurements. In this context, actual man-hour values of specified construction activities were determined by interviewing 126 labors employed in Antalya, Turkey and compared with those values of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. The results revealed that, there are significant differences between these man-hour values and for an accurate calculation the values of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization must be updated for each region in Turkey. Index Terms�Construction Labor Productivity, Construction planning, Man hour values, t- test