Four-day work week, California has it too

Same salary, but 32 hours instead of 40. Like many companies and states, the California is considering the possibility of a four-day work week. Democratic MPs Cristina Garcia and Evan Low support a bill presented to the local parliament.

This short week would apply at the start only to companies with more than 500 employees. This is about 2,600 companies and more than 3.6 million workers according to the California Department of Employment Development. Same salary for those who work 32 hours and no longer forty. The salary goes up for those who make more. Those who are against it say that it would only increase costs for companies, while those in favor see instead a form of balance and reconciliation between private life and work which is one of the great requests arising from the period of lockdown and pandemic.

“Monte other companies, and other countries too, are already doing it,” said MP Low al Los Angeles Times, “So I think this is the direction we are going. This will attract more employees, because it is undisputed that workers are looking for more flexibility“.

The model is that of the experimentation carried out in Iceland between 2015 and 2019 with the decrease from 40 to 35 working hours. On the island, productivity has remained unchanged and in some cases has even increased. The short workweek was introduced by some companies in New Zeland, in Belgium, in the Arab Emirates, but also 37 companies between the US and Canada and more than 50 British companies have signed up for an experimental project that starts in June. There are projects in Spain and Ireland.

According to a survey conducted by Jefferies on a sample of Americans between the ages of 22 and 35 who are fired32% would have remained had they been given the opportunity to work four days a week.

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