4-day workweek: Where this global movement came from, where it’s going in California
In April, 4 Day Week Global, a nonprofit foundation associated with Oxford University, began a six-month pilot program testing the four-day workweek at more than three dozen companies with a total of 7,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada. Most are offering 32-hour workweeks without a cut in pay.
The nonprofit says 78% of employees with a four-day workweek are happier and less stressed.
The California the Department of Industrial Relations has been keeping track of alternative workweeks since 1999. Companies must take a vote of employees about changing from a traditional 40-hour week and record it with the state within 30 days.
“The statute does not authorize DIR to approve or disapprove any filings, but to be a repository for the records,” Christina Cano, spokeswoman for DIR, told the Journal. “An employer’s failure to follow the required process may result in violations of overtime rules, subject to potential unpaid wages, damages and any penalties associated to those violations.”
While the DIR website lists which companies have alternative workweeks and the date of the employees’ vote, the state does not tabulate how many firms make changes in a given year.
Alternative work schedules have been on the books for years, but now it is becoming the norm instead of an anomaly to not work eight-hour shifts Monday through Friday.
“While some of the options mean working longer days in order to have the rotational or regular day off, some locales and companies are opting for a reduced number of hours altogether and shifting to a 32-hour workweek but with the expectation of the same level of productivity and, in some instances, the same amount of pay,” Alary, with The Personnel Perspective.
The workweek has been an evolution, with a day of rest (often for religious reasons) being common for centuries. Religion is also what led a New England mill in 1908 to be credited with being the first factory in the U.S. to go five days a week. This accommodated Jewish works who did not want to work Saturdays.
The federal government codified the 40-hour week after the Great Depression to spread the opportunity for employment to more people instead of workers grinding out 50-hour and longer weeks.
In July 2021, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, introduced legislation that would shorten the workweek to four eight-hour days.
“At a time when the nature of work is rapidly changing, it’s incumbent upon us to explore all possible means of ensuring our modern business model prioritizes productivity, fair pay, and an improved quality of life for workers,” Takano said at the time. “I am introducing this legislation to reduce the standard workweek to 32 hours because—now more than ever—people continue to work longer hours while their pay remains stagnant. We cannot continue to accept this as our reality.”
Time will tell if his bill will be resurrected at the federal level or if some other idea will be floated among lawmakers.
Economist John Maynard Keynes in a 1930 essay predicted by 2030 the work workweek would be 15 hours, with five days off. Evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley also expected we would be at or nearing a two-day workweek.
In 1930 Huxley wrote, “When we reach the point when the world produces all the goods that it needs in two days, as it inevitably will, we must curtail our production of goods and turn our attention to the great problem of what to do with our new leisure."
According to the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, “In 1965, a Senate subcommittee concluded that, by the year 2000, the average American would only work 14 hours per week and have access to seven weeks of vacation each year.”
