As other countries test out four-day workweeks with success, employees in the U.S. are left to wonder if it will ever take hold at home.
Just 15% of U.S. employers offer a four-day schedule, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, yet the rise of flexible and remote working arrangements, as well as advancements in technology, could soon make this idea a reality for more workers.
“More and more businesses are moving to productivity-focused strategies to enable them to reduce worker hours without reducing pay,” says Joe O’Connor, the global pilot program manager at 4 Day Week Global, a New Zealand-based organization helping employers around the world establish a shorter workweek. “The four-day week challenges the current model of work and helps companies move away from simply measuring how long people are ‘at work’, to a sharper focus on the output being produced.”
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In Iceland, four-day workweek trials run by the Reykjavík City Council and the national government — in which employers were paid the same amount for working shorter hours — took place between 2015 and 2019, according to a report from the BBC. The report called the test an “overwhelming success” with employees across the nation reporting less stress and burnout, while productivity either remained the same or increased. The Spanish government is also testing out a four-day workweek, and different companies across Japan and New Zealand have also begun rolling out this policy.
“The potential benefits of this scheduling plan go beyond providing your employees with a positive work experience,” Matt Buchanan, the co-founder and chief growth officer at Service Direct, a marketing company testing out a four-day work week, wrote in a column for Employee Benefit News. “You may find that your employees actually get more done, and the quality of work may be elevated as well … [and] adding a perk that gives your people some additional lifestyle flexibility can go a long way toward keeping them around for the long haul.”
While there is no nationwide four-day workweek policy in the U.S., Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) has put forward the 32-Hour Workweek Act, which has gotten support from the Congressional Progressive Caucus and aims to reduce the typical 40-hour U.S. workweek that has been the norm since the 1940s.
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“After a nearly two-year-long pandemic that forced millions of people to explore remote work options, it’s safe to say that we can’t — and shouldn’t — simply go back to normal, because normal wasn’t working,” Takano said in a statement on his website in December. “People were spending more time at work, less time with loved ones, their health and well-being was worsening, and all the while, their pay has remained stagnant. This is a serious problem. It’s time for progress and I am confident that with the CPC behind this bill, we can take meaningful steps forward and create positive, lasting change in people’s lives.”
In the meantime, some U.S. employers, 10 of which are listed below, have taken it upon themselves to offer a four-day workweek — and are seeing results worth celebrating.