Want a 4-day workweek? Here’s what it would actually take to get there

The drive to shorten the workweek is gaining momentum. 

Already companies like fintech startup Bolt, Kickstarter, Buffer, Unilever New Zealand and Australia, and Microsoft Japan have either experimented with or implemented a condensed work schedule. In fact, of the 61 companies who switched to a four-day workweek as part of a major pilot study in the U.K. last year, 90% chose to make the change permanent.  

While these companies are still very much in the minority, new research suggests that a majority of business leaders see the four-day workweek as an inevitability—even if they’re not yet ready to make the change themselves. 

According to a recent survey of 1,000 U.S. business owners and employers conducted by B2B Reviews, 57% are willing to pilot a four-day workweek, and 27% already have. Furthermore, 45% believe a four-day workweek will be implemented in the next five years, and 62% are in support of a federal requirement.

The data suggests a tipping point is nearing, but how and when the four-day workweek goes from the fringes to the mainstream depends on who you ask. Some believe more research is the answer to widespread adoption, some say the productivity gains promised by artificial intelligence will deliver a reduced workweek, others believe political action is required, while others yet say we’ve already tipped.

Is a federal mandate the path to mainstream adoption?

According to Madeline Weirman, a project manager for B2B reviews who conducted the research, many businesses are concerned that reducing the workweek could put them at a competitive disadvantage, which may explain their support for a federal mandate.

“The top three concerns that business owners had is that it might negatively impact customer service and satisfaction; it would go against industry standards; and it would be difficult for scheduling and coordinating,” she says. “Given the competitive nature of business, if your whole industry is doing the same thing, you’re on a more level playing field, because it creates a standard and expectation for clients and employees.”

Weirman says the survey was inspired by a January proposal by California Congressman Mark Takano to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to require overtime pay after 32 hours instead of the current 40, effectively cementing a four-day workweek. The bill was reintroduced in March following the conclusion of the U.K. pilot.

“The 40-hour workweek didn’t exist forever, it was established in law, and we see the convergence of a number of factors that lead us to a place where I think it’s more than appropriate for government leaders to be thinking about the idea of a shorter workweek,” Congressman Takano says.

The congressman explains that the establishment of a five-day workweek began organically by labor movement activists and industrialists like Henry Ford before it was standardized in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. He adds that the push for a four-day workweek has similarly taken route organically but will benefit from political support.  

“The inspiration was borne partly out of my observations about the American workforce during COVID-19 and coming out of COVID-19,” he says. “I was also looking at it from the angle of income inequality.”

Congressman Takano explains that the pandemic put a spotlight on growing inequalities in the American workforce, and he feared the flexibility gains of the COVID-era weren’t being spread evenly. In fact, one of the primary criticisms of the four-day workweek movement is that it is likely to most benefit white-collar knowledge workers.

“Coming at this from the government side is precisely about raising the question for lower wage workers, lower skilled workers, about spreading the benefit of a four-day workweek on a much broader basis,” he says. “I just want to make sure that we include all sectors of the workforce in this conversation.”

The AI elephant in the room

One of the other motivations for bringing legislation forward now, says Congressman Takano, is the rapid rise of AI innovation, and its potential to further that divide.

“We’ve seen technology produce greater income inequality, and we’ve got to structure labor markets in such a way that they serve humanity, and not the other way around,” he says. “I do think it’s beginning to dawn on members of Congress that the political institutions need to catch up to the disruptions that AI is going to cause.”

Congressman Takano also suggests that reducing the workweek could address a range of other societal challenges, ranging from fighting climate change to stimulating the economy.

“The Progressive Caucus, the largest ideological caucus in Congress, endorsed my bill,” he says. “My friend and colleague in the Senate, Bernie Sanders, has come out and said that he thinks it’s an idea whose time has come.”

Some, however, fear that such support from one end of the political spectrum could backfire, propelling an organic, apolitical movement into the culture war.

The case against a federal mandate

That political divide is already starting to emerge. According to the B2B Reviews survey a four-day workweek is supported by 70% of Democrat business owners, but only 53% of Republicans.

Already the Society for Human Resource Management has come out in opposition of a similar bill in California, and there are many who don’t see much of a point in reducing the workweek in a world where work follows us everywhere we go. 

“What happens today when somebody mandates a four-day workweek, and on day five their cell phone rings with their most important customer [calling]?” asks David Vied, the global sector leader for the medical devices and diagnostics practice at management consulting firm Korn Ferry. “Whether or not they answer their phone, it’s ringing, and . . . they’re thinking about work. That’s why I’m a little bit skeptical.” 

Vied also worries that starting overtime pay after 32 hours as proposed could, in practice, result in more unpaid labor, rather than more overtime pay. 

“There are situations where an hourly employee who is not supposed to incur overtime—they’ve been told by their boss no overtime this quarter—still feels compelled and stressed because they can’t get the job done,” he says. “So, you have a mission and a vision and a set of responsibilities [where the individual] is being hampered by their inability to bill for their time.” 

Joe O’Connor, director and cofounder of the Work Time Reduction Center of Excellence—an organization that advocates for and helps companies transition to a four-day workweek—fears that a mandate could actually be counterproductive. He explains that the Fair Labor Standards Act only came about well after a five-day workweek had widespread adoption. “Legislation was brought in and extended and normalized to fill in the gaps after it had organically become normalized,” he says, adding that the four-day workweek hasn’t yet reached critical mass.

O’Connor also encourages lawmakers to choose a carrot, rather than a stick, approach by offering incentives and support, instead of introducing policies that could be interpreted as punishment for employers that refuse to go along. “I’m not sure that the right approach today is to start making this mandatory for private sector employers,” he says.

Have we already tipped?

At the same time O’Connor also believes that the tipping point where a shorter week is the norm is very close, if it hasn’t arrived already. “If there is to be a major catalyst, it will be artificial intelligence,” he says.

O’Connor says that the productivity gains made possible by new technologies will increase the feasibility of a four-day workweek without reducing productivity. Furthermore, he believes that the pandemic and the Great Resignation have caused many to question the traditional wisdom of a five-day standard, and increased competition for talent. He has also observed how, once an employer switches to four-days, those competing for the same talent quickly follow.

“The snowball has left the mountain—we are already tipping—that’s patently clear,” says Charlotte Lockhart, founder and managing director 4 Day Week Global, which coordinated the U.K. study and endorsed Congressman Takano’s proposal. “We see it in the volume of conversations we’re having with decision makers and policy makers and other advocates and influencers since our last research came out with the U.K.”

Lockhart adds that the organization is currently assisting a large-scale pilot in North America that will run through 2023 and believes that the insights produced could have an even bigger impact than the U.K. study. “We are adding in some data points that Mark Takano’s office wants, and various other governments,” she says.

Furthermore, while the advancement of AI has made an impact Lockhart says what employers need most to move forward is data. “I would suggest by 2025 there will be a large number of organizations that are doing it, because it will just be the normal way of working.”