The four-day workweek has become a subject of increasing fascination around the world in recent years--and experiments with it tend to look promising. (Photo: Getty/Stock photo)
Momentum for a Permanent 4-Day Work Week Grows
Americans work far, far more than people in most other affluent countries.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, the biggest bloc of liberal lawmakers in Congress, on Dec. 7 endorsed a bold bill proposed by Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., which would seek to implement a four-day workweek. It's a measure that has no real prospect of becoming law in the near term, but it's a compelling idea that's garnering more attention worldwide--and it could serve as a potential point of focus for the American left in the future.
Shorter workweeks should be viewed as a human rights imperative.
Shortening working hours has been a major point of focus for workers, both organized and unorganized, around the world for centuries. In the U.S. and Europe in the 19th century, wage workers often worked six or 6 1/2 days a week, and could endure brutal labor for 100 hours over the course of a week. In the early 20th century, the American organized labor movement successfully lobbied for an eight-hour workday, or a 40-hour workweek, based on the principle that workers deserve to divide their 24-hour days equally among rest, work and leisure.
But since then, efforts to shorten how much Americans work have largely stalled, work hours have crept up, and the U.S. has fallen behind peer countries. Americans work far, far more than people in most other affluent countries; from over here, France's 35-hour workweek can seem like a ludicrous fantasy. And while Americans have zero legally guaranteed paid vacation days, many European countries require employers to provide their workers with several weeks of paid time off--Austria, for example, mandates 25 paid workdays off and 13 paid holidays every year.
"People are spending more time at work, less time with loved ones, their health and well-being is worsening, and their pay has remained stagnant. It's time for change," Takano said in a statement about his bill. He has framed the legislation as an opportunity to recalibrate work-life balance amid a broader reconsideration of how Americans work--and have been exploited--during the pandemic.
If it's enacted, the bill wouldn't actually put a ceiling on how many days someone could work in week. Rather, it would require that employers pay overtime--time and a half--after 32 hours of labor. It wouldn't include certain kinds of workers, like gig workers and salaried employees exempt from overtime. But it would cover the majority of American workers, Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told me, and would also have the power to reshape norms for salaried workers who aren't eligible for overtime.
The idea is that the policy would nudge businesses--and employees--to rethink work in the form of fewer hours or more efficiency in the workday, or some blend of the two. Baker said that when France reduced its workweek--which also worked by reducing the hours before overtime kicked in--it was expected that it would provide new jobs for workers to take up the work that wouldn't get done in a shorter week. Instead, it mainly caused a "substantial" boost in productivity. "Employers figured, OK, I don't want to pay the [overtime] wage premium, so I'm going to figure out how to restructure my workplace so I can get more work per hour out of workers," Baker said.
If it's enacted, the bill wouldn't actually put a ceiling on how many days someone could work in week. Rather, it would require that employers pay overtime--time and a half--after 32 hours of labor.
When I asked Baker whether such a law would destabilize the U.S. economy, especially businesses with slim profit margins, he said he believed that while some businesses would be pushed over the edge, "you'll see the vast majority of businesses adjust to it," particularly if it is phased in.
The four-day workweek has become a subject of increasing fascination around the world in recent years--and experiments with it tend to look promising. Researchers who oversaw a study of 2,500 Icelandic workers conducted over several years described trials with a four-day workweek with no cuts in pay as a "resounding success." The report on the study said workers' well-being "dramatically increased," while "productivity and service provision remained the same or improved across the majority of trial workplaces."
Simultaneous boosts in well-being and productivity have also been reported at companies in the U.S., New Zealand and Japan. Businesses that have had success with the model have reported using strategies to streamline the work day by doing things like reducing meetings and blocking out time for uninterrupted work. It also seems to help that employees also are able to attend to personal business outside of work hours with the spare time, making any given day more focused. Governments are taking increasing interest in the matter as well--Spain and Scotland, for example, are planning four-day workweek trials by subsidizing employers who give workers an extra day off.
These experiments are worth watching closely. Shorter workweeks should be viewed as a human rights imperative--a way to ensure that every person is guaranteed a meaningful amount of free time to rest, to play, to reflect, to organize and build power, to pray, to wander. Or to do something else entirely: whatever they want.
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just four days to go in our Spring Campaign, we are not even halfway to our goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, the biggest bloc of liberal lawmakers in Congress, on Dec. 7 endorsed a bold bill proposed by Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., which would seek to implement a four-day workweek. It's a measure that has no real prospect of becoming law in the near term, but it's a compelling idea that's garnering more attention worldwide--and it could serve as a potential point of focus for the American left in the future.
Shorter workweeks should be viewed as a human rights imperative.
Shortening working hours has been a major point of focus for workers, both organized and unorganized, around the world for centuries. In the U.S. and Europe in the 19th century, wage workers often worked six or 6 1/2 days a week, and could endure brutal labor for 100 hours over the course of a week. In the early 20th century, the American organized labor movement successfully lobbied for an eight-hour workday, or a 40-hour workweek, based on the principle that workers deserve to divide their 24-hour days equally among rest, work and leisure.
But since then, efforts to shorten how much Americans work have largely stalled, work hours have crept up, and the U.S. has fallen behind peer countries. Americans work far, far more than people in most other affluent countries; from over here, France's 35-hour workweek can seem like a ludicrous fantasy. And while Americans have zero legally guaranteed paid vacation days, many European countries require employers to provide their workers with several weeks of paid time off--Austria, for example, mandates 25 paid workdays off and 13 paid holidays every year.
"People are spending more time at work, less time with loved ones, their health and well-being is worsening, and their pay has remained stagnant. It's time for change," Takano said in a statement about his bill. He has framed the legislation as an opportunity to recalibrate work-life balance amid a broader reconsideration of how Americans work--and have been exploited--during the pandemic.
If it's enacted, the bill wouldn't actually put a ceiling on how many days someone could work in week. Rather, it would require that employers pay overtime--time and a half--after 32 hours of labor. It wouldn't include certain kinds of workers, like gig workers and salaried employees exempt from overtime. But it would cover the majority of American workers, Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told me, and would also have the power to reshape norms for salaried workers who aren't eligible for overtime.
The idea is that the policy would nudge businesses--and employees--to rethink work in the form of fewer hours or more efficiency in the workday, or some blend of the two. Baker said that when France reduced its workweek--which also worked by reducing the hours before overtime kicked in--it was expected that it would provide new jobs for workers to take up the work that wouldn't get done in a shorter week. Instead, it mainly caused a "substantial" boost in productivity. "Employers figured, OK, I don't want to pay the [overtime] wage premium, so I'm going to figure out how to restructure my workplace so I can get more work per hour out of workers," Baker said.
If it's enacted, the bill wouldn't actually put a ceiling on how many days someone could work in week. Rather, it would require that employers pay overtime--time and a half--after 32 hours of labor.
When I asked Baker whether such a law would destabilize the U.S. economy, especially businesses with slim profit margins, he said he believed that while some businesses would be pushed over the edge, "you'll see the vast majority of businesses adjust to it," particularly if it is phased in.
The four-day workweek has become a subject of increasing fascination around the world in recent years--and experiments with it tend to look promising. Researchers who oversaw a study of 2,500 Icelandic workers conducted over several years described trials with a four-day workweek with no cuts in pay as a "resounding success." The report on the study said workers' well-being "dramatically increased," while "productivity and service provision remained the same or improved across the majority of trial workplaces."
Simultaneous boosts in well-being and productivity have also been reported at companies in the U.S., New Zealand and Japan. Businesses that have had success with the model have reported using strategies to streamline the work day by doing things like reducing meetings and blocking out time for uninterrupted work. It also seems to help that employees also are able to attend to personal business outside of work hours with the spare time, making any given day more focused. Governments are taking increasing interest in the matter as well--Spain and Scotland, for example, are planning four-day workweek trials by subsidizing employers who give workers an extra day off.
These experiments are worth watching closely. Shorter workweeks should be viewed as a human rights imperative--a way to ensure that every person is guaranteed a meaningful amount of free time to rest, to play, to reflect, to organize and build power, to pray, to wander. Or to do something else entirely: whatever they want.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, the biggest bloc of liberal lawmakers in Congress, on Dec. 7 endorsed a bold bill proposed by Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., which would seek to implement a four-day workweek. It's a measure that has no real prospect of becoming law in the near term, but it's a compelling idea that's garnering more attention worldwide--and it could serve as a potential point of focus for the American left in the future.
Shorter workweeks should be viewed as a human rights imperative.
Shortening working hours has been a major point of focus for workers, both organized and unorganized, around the world for centuries. In the U.S. and Europe in the 19th century, wage workers often worked six or 6 1/2 days a week, and could endure brutal labor for 100 hours over the course of a week. In the early 20th century, the American organized labor movement successfully lobbied for an eight-hour workday, or a 40-hour workweek, based on the principle that workers deserve to divide their 24-hour days equally among rest, work and leisure.
But since then, efforts to shorten how much Americans work have largely stalled, work hours have crept up, and the U.S. has fallen behind peer countries. Americans work far, far more than people in most other affluent countries; from over here, France's 35-hour workweek can seem like a ludicrous fantasy. And while Americans have zero legally guaranteed paid vacation days, many European countries require employers to provide their workers with several weeks of paid time off--Austria, for example, mandates 25 paid workdays off and 13 paid holidays every year.
"People are spending more time at work, less time with loved ones, their health and well-being is worsening, and their pay has remained stagnant. It's time for change," Takano said in a statement about his bill. He has framed the legislation as an opportunity to recalibrate work-life balance amid a broader reconsideration of how Americans work--and have been exploited--during the pandemic.
If it's enacted, the bill wouldn't actually put a ceiling on how many days someone could work in week. Rather, it would require that employers pay overtime--time and a half--after 32 hours of labor. It wouldn't include certain kinds of workers, like gig workers and salaried employees exempt from overtime. But it would cover the majority of American workers, Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told me, and would also have the power to reshape norms for salaried workers who aren't eligible for overtime.
The idea is that the policy would nudge businesses--and employees--to rethink work in the form of fewer hours or more efficiency in the workday, or some blend of the two. Baker said that when France reduced its workweek--which also worked by reducing the hours before overtime kicked in--it was expected that it would provide new jobs for workers to take up the work that wouldn't get done in a shorter week. Instead, it mainly caused a "substantial" boost in productivity. "Employers figured, OK, I don't want to pay the [overtime] wage premium, so I'm going to figure out how to restructure my workplace so I can get more work per hour out of workers," Baker said.
If it's enacted, the bill wouldn't actually put a ceiling on how many days someone could work in week. Rather, it would require that employers pay overtime--time and a half--after 32 hours of labor.
When I asked Baker whether such a law would destabilize the U.S. economy, especially businesses with slim profit margins, he said he believed that while some businesses would be pushed over the edge, "you'll see the vast majority of businesses adjust to it," particularly if it is phased in.
The four-day workweek has become a subject of increasing fascination around the world in recent years--and experiments with it tend to look promising. Researchers who oversaw a study of 2,500 Icelandic workers conducted over several years described trials with a four-day workweek with no cuts in pay as a "resounding success." The report on the study said workers' well-being "dramatically increased," while "productivity and service provision remained the same or improved across the majority of trial workplaces."
Simultaneous boosts in well-being and productivity have also been reported at companies in the U.S., New Zealand and Japan. Businesses that have had success with the model have reported using strategies to streamline the work day by doing things like reducing meetings and blocking out time for uninterrupted work. It also seems to help that employees also are able to attend to personal business outside of work hours with the spare time, making any given day more focused. Governments are taking increasing interest in the matter as well--Spain and Scotland, for example, are planning four-day workweek trials by subsidizing employers who give workers an extra day off.
These experiments are worth watching closely. Shorter workweeks should be viewed as a human rights imperative--a way to ensure that every person is guaranteed a meaningful amount of free time to rest, to play, to reflect, to organize and build power, to pray, to wander. Or to do something else entirely: whatever they want.