Would a Four-Day Workweek Be Practical in the United States?

By Dr. Stephen Schwalbe
Faculty Member, Public Administration

According to a 2014 Gallup poll, Americans work an average of 47 hours a week. That is more hours than any other developed country. In fact, one in five American employees works through lunch.

Workers in other countries have a much shorter workweek than the U.S. standard of 40 hours, five days a week:

• The Netherlands: 29 hours
• Denmark and Norway: 33 hours
• Ireland: 34 hours
• Germany: 35 hours
• France and Sweden: about 35 hours

New Zealand Company Successfully Experiments with a Four-Day Workweek

New Zealand trust company Perpetual Guardian announced in February 2018 that it would begin a six-week trial of a four-day workweek in March. Perpetual’s 240 employees worked just four eight-hour days a week, with Fridays off and no reduction in pay.

This experiment was unlike many four-day week initiatives that require employees to work four 10-hour days for the same pay. The Perpetual Guardian trial saw a 20% increase in productivity, a 30% increase in customer engagement levels, a 24% work-life balance improvement and a reduction in staff stress levels.

In addition, the company’s revenue remained stable throughout the trial and its operating costs were reduced because employees used less power. As a result of the trial, Perpetual Guardian made the workweek change permanent.

Four-Day Workweek Concept Has Been Around for Over 40 Years

The idea of a four-day workweek is not new. Labor experts have been studying and advocating for a reduced workweek since the 1970s.

In 2008, researchers at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, conducted a series of surveys among employees and community members to assess their attitudes about a four-day workweek. The researchers found that about four-fifths of those surveyed reported a positive experience working a reduced weekly schedule.

Based on these positive results, Utah enacted a four-day workweek for all state employees. The goal was to curb energy costs, improve air quality and ensure that necessary public services would still be available (for instance, garbage collection). The four-day workweek was also designed to recruit and retain state employees.

But in 2011, Utah reversed its course. The government explained that the anticipated cost savings never materialized.

Four-Day Workweek Also Attempted in Education

A four-day workweek has also been implemented in the educational field. Today, over 470 school districts, mostly in rural areas in the United States, have changed to a four-day week. Most of these districts have also extended each school day by an hour or more.

These changes were made primarily to meet the states’ mandatory number of instruction hours per school year. But the reduced school week was also designed to save money on transportation costs (i.e., school buses and gasoline), heating, substitute teacher hiring and new teacher recruitment.

Four-Day Workweek Generally Favored by Employees and Productivity Often Improves

Naturally, employees testing a four-day workweek are excited about the prospects of one less day commuting to and from work and having more time at home to get things done. A shorter workweek also provides more time to do recreational activities with family or friends.

However, tests of a four-day workweek also result in the “Hawthorne effect.” Psychiatrist Elton Mayo and other researchers found that when management at Western Electric’s Hawthorne facility in Illinois considered workers’ needs between 1924 and 1936, productivity improved. Mayo concluded that individuals modify an aspect of their behavior when they are aware that they are being observed or part of an experiment.

As a result, we should not automatically jump to the conclusion that cutting the five-day workweek to four days will always be effective and worthwhile. It would probably be more effective to make Fridays a day off with no pay cut, but only in selected cases.

This schedule change would only work under the following circumstances:

• When external entities are not adversely affected
• When cost savings would be significant for both the organization and the employees
• When the change to a four-day workweek made business and economic sense

While the idea of a four-day workweek has worked for one private company in New Zealand and for businesses in some European countries, it is a decision for each individual American company to make. In today’s era of low unemployment in the U.S., a company with a short workweek and pay comparable to a five-day workweek is likely to attract more job candidates.

In regard to education, a four-day school week might be a good idea as long as the instructional hours provided to students are not decreased. Indeed, we have seen more and more school districts convert to shorter school weeks with each passing year.