There is a constant debate in the world about how much people should work in order, on the one hand, to maintain productivity and maintain stable economic growth, and on the other hand, to find a balance between work and personal life and avoid burnout. In 2024, many countries are launching pilot projects to switch to a four-day work week. Previous experiments have already shown positive results, so the trend towards reducing working hours continues to march around the world.
In this article, the Finam Financial Group columnist examines all points of view on this issue.
Does a four-day work week increase productivity?
In the modern world, a five-day or forty-hour work week is perceived as the norm in most countries. However, this was not always the case. At the beginning of the 20th century, trade unions and workers had to protest a lot against harsh working conditions and a 70+ hour work week. For example, in the United States, the standard "five-day" appeared only in 1926, began to spread in the 30s and finally became entrenched in legislation in the 1950s.
Many modern experts believe that further reduction of working hours will not harm, but only increase the productivity of workers. According to Bloomberg, a pilot project to switch 45 companies to a 4-day working week will start in Germany on February 1. For six months, their employees will work one day less per week while maintaining their salaries. The purpose of the experiment is to increase labor productivity. The fact is that German companies, in conditions of staff shortages and an aging population, are looking for new ways to attract employees to themselves.
In 2015, Iceland became a pioneer in the transition to a four-day working week, which tested a shortened work format for a total of four years, after which working hours for most citizens of the country decreased.
Currently, more and more developed countries and companies are joining the experiment with a four-day working week. For example, the Italian-French eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica with a turnover of $88 billion, the British consumer goods group Unilever with a turnover of $106 billion and the Japanese equipment manufacturer Panasonic with a turnover of $59.7 billion are reducing working hours. Italy's largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, has been giving employees the opportunity to work nine hours a day four days a week since January 2023.
From February 1, 2025, the Ministry of Labor of the Dominican Republic will launch a pilot plan to voluntarily reduce the working week from 44 to 36 hours. The experiment will last three months, after which the scientists will analyze the results for another three months.
As past practice has shown, they turned out to be positive. According to a study by the independent company Autonomy, a similar six-month pilot project in Britain in 2022 showed that 61 participating companies, mostly small businesses, had an average revenue growth of 35% compared to the same period in 2021. However, the economic recovery after the pandemic also helped here. In the same companies, 71% of employees reported a decrease in burnout, and the number of layoffs decreased by 57%. All British companies involved in the pilot retained a four-day week after the experiment was completed. According to the forecasts of the New Zealand non-profit organization 4 Day Week Global, although during the experiment employees work fewer hours for the same salary, their productivity should remain stable or even increase due to reduced stress levels and improved employee health.
Why are critics against it?
Critics of the idea of reducing working hours consider this measure to be populist and unable to significantly increase labor productivity. Thus, according to Enzo Weber, an economist at the Institute for Labor Market Research in Nuremberg, without improvements in the digitalization of processes, German workers are unlikely to see significant productivity growth simply by reducing working hours.
"A four-day week can lead to an increase in hourly productivity, but it is unlikely that such an increase in productivity will be able to compensate for a reduction in working hours. Together with the reduction of the labor force, this will become a serious obstacle to economic growth," the expert warns.
Christian Lindner, the German finance minister, issued an even more harsh criticism of the shortened working week, saying that such a move would jeopardize the country's economic growth and prosperity.
Unsuccessful experiments were also carried out with the reduction of working hours. According to Reuters, in 2015, a pilot project in Sweden, which provided for a six-hour working day for four days, gave mixed results and drew criticism from right-wing parties for being economically sustainable. In the UK, the engineering group Allcap prematurely stopped a similar test two months before it ended, because it found that its workers had fewer working days, but they became much more stressful.
