Where the 4-Day Workweek Works

A 32-hour workweek just took a step closer to reality in the U.S. Senate. New legislation introduced by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders proposes to shorten how long we work without a pay cut.

The 4-Day Workweek

Perhaps xkcd has the simplest solution:

The Upside

The UK

Meanwhile, a recent six-month study from the U.K. emerged with encouraging results for 4-day week advocates. Among the 61 businesses that participated, close to half reported an uptick in employee morale. During the experiment, they had less absenteeism and reduced worker turnover. At the same time, 46% of companies said productivity did not change while 15% saw considerable improvement.

Iceland

From 2015 to 2019, researchers observed the impact of a 4- day workweek in Iceland. Participating businesses ranged from preschools to hospitals while selected government agencies and offices also took part. In all, approximately 2,500 workers provided a reaction to the same pay for less time at work.

The report supported a reduced workweek. Participants said that that they had more family time and less stress. Men helped with childcare and household chores. People reported less burnout and better health. At work, managers said that new work strategies like shorter meetings preserved productivity. Since then, 86% of the workers in Iceland got the right to move to a shorter work week.

The Downside

Sweden

The results were quite different in 2016 when the owner of a Swedish biotech firm reduced his 30 employees’ daily hours from eight to six while the pay remained the same. After a month, he switched the schedule back to normal because everyone was more harried. People had a tough time contacting unavailable associates when they needed them. Some stayed later to finish or left the work for their managers to complete.

In another experiment at a Gothenburg, Sweden nursing home, the outcomes were positive and negative during the two years that 68 employees earned full pay for fewer hours. Working five days a week, six hours a day, employees were less stressed, engaged in extra activities with the elderly residents, and called in sick less frequently. However, the missed time added up to $1.3 million (12 million kronor) in pay for the 17 extra employees they needed. So yes, jobs were created but the program was too expensive.

One 2015 study from the University of Turin found that Italian workers were less productive when the workday dropped below eight hours. But evidence from Germany was the opposite.

Our Bottom Line: The Work Year

At one end of the OECD spectrum we have Germany while Colombia clocks in with the most annual hours worked:

You see where we have wound up. Less can be more… but not always.

My sources and more: Thanks to Senator Sanders for inspiring this post. Actually, it’s an update to our look at the 4-day workweek several years ago. And from there, for a third perspective, I discovered so much more in this NBER history, this CNBC world summary, and this WSJ article. Please note that several of today’s sections were in a previous econlife post.