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4-Day Work Week Studies: The Overview
Here are all of the studies that analyze productivity, benefits, profitability, employee happiness, and more for companies and countries that have implemented a four-day work week.
Organization
Study Title
Year Published
Key Statistics
Iceland & Autonomy
Going Public: Iceland's Journey To A Shorter Working Week
"Under the plans, an estimated 200 to 400 Spanish companies will voluntarily take part in the project by reducing their employees’ working week to 32 hours while keeping their salaries the same. The government will compensate participating businesses for any higher costs incurred by the changes, such as the need to hire additional staff or to reorganize scheduling and shift patterns."
"Scotland is to trial a four-day week, but without a loss of pay. A report out today includes some ideas for how it could be done, drawing on experience in Iceland and New Zealand."
"Unilever New Zealand will trial a four-day work week at full pay, becoming the first global company to do so in Aotearoa. All 81 of Unilever’s staff members will be eligible to participate in the trial."
Study Details & Statistics
In this section, you can learn more about each completed study from the table at the top. Here you’ll find key statistics and findings from each study.
Going Public: Iceland’s Journey To A Shorter Working Week
Who conducted the study? Iceland (Autonomy & Alda)
Analysis of the results which included 2,500 workers – over 1% of Iceland’s entire working population – found…
“86% of the country’s workforce are now working shorter hours or gaining the right to shorten their hours.”
“Workers at Icelandic Government workplaces that saw reductions in working time experienced improvements in wellbeing at work. Meanwhile, control workplaces working a full working week showed no such improvements.”
“Participants reported a marked benefit in terms of work-life balance for workplaces where hours were shortened, while comparison workplaces did not show such a benefit.”
“A survey taken of the 550 full-time employees at the end of the three-month trial period found 94% of workers and 91% of managers wanted the program to continue”
“84% of employees said they have been more productive”
“86% said they have been more efficient with their time”
4-Day Work Weeks: Results From 2020 and Our Plan for 2021
“Nearly 34 percent felt more productive than when we had a five-day work week, nearly 60 percent felt equally as productive, and less than seven percent felt less productive”
“Reported autonomy and flexibility in May of 2020 was at 4.3 out of 5 (5 being “total autonomy”) – this increased to 4.7 by the end of our six-month pilot”
“Our stress levels in May 2020 (when we first launched the experiment) was 3.3 out of 5 (5 being high stress) – this dipped down to 2.7 at our June survey, and 2.9 in our October survey”
We dropped to a 4-day work week, here’s what happened
Research of over 500 business leaders and 2,000 employees includes businesses that have already implemented a four-day working week….
“Businesses state that these factors are helping them run more cost-effectively. The combined savings to UK business is already as high as £92 billion a year, 2% of total annual turnover.”
“Almost two-thirds (64%) of employers report an increase in staff productivity as well as an improvement in the quality of work being produced (63%).”
“75% believe less rigid working hours are key to harmonising the age diverse workplace and 44% see a four-day working week as the right solution.”
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Does Belgium have a 4-day work week? Yes. Belgium does have an optional four-day work week. In February 2022, a series of labor law reforms in Belgium passed, one of which gives workers the right to condense their work week from five days into four. Belgium has a 38-hour work for full-time employees. Workers who choose a four-day week would be expected to deliver the…
During the Industrial Revolution, factory workers logged 80-100 hours per week. But in 1926, Henry Ford popularized the 40-hour work week after he found that working more barely yielded an increase in productivity. It was a breakthrough in how we work. But it was also nearly one hundred years ago. Just like how Henry Ford implemented the five-day work, today’s visionary companies have implemented four-day…
<< 4-Day Work Week: Complete Overview Interest in the four-day work week has grown drastically in the last few years – first from individuals, then management teams, and now governments. There are a number of four-day (or, 32-hour work week) bills being proposed in states and countries around the world. This is a running list of all of the government bills that push for a…
Does Japan have a 4-day work week? No. Japan does not have a four-day work week. Why are people talking about a 4-day work week in Japan? There are two main reasons people have heard about the four-day work week in Japan. 1) Microsoft Japan ran a four-day work week trial called the “Work Life Choice Challenge” in the summer of 2019. The company claims…
Does Iceland have a 4-day work week? No. From 2014 – 2021, Iceland ran two well-publicized trials of a 35-36 hour work week sponsored by the federal government. The combined studies came to be known as Iceland’s four-day work week study, but that title and the results are misleading. As a result of the studies, many organizations did reduce their working hours. However, on average…
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