4 Day Work Week Explained

The 5-day, 40-hour work week has been the standard for most American employees since the Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938. While productivity has dramatically changed in the nearly a century since the FLSA became law, the typical work week has not. However, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic and The Great Resignation, there is a new national conversation focused on reducing employee burnout and reexamining the structure of American work. This movement has led to a seemingly radical proposal, the 4-day work week.

Even members of Congress are beginning to push for a shorter work week, but the 4-day work week isn’t a new idea. It’s already become a staple in countries like Iceland, and governments and individual employers around the world have experimented with it for years to different levels of success. So in this blog we’ll explain what the 4-day work week is, the potential pros and cons, and some of the employers around the United States who are experimenting with it already.

The 4-Day Work Week Explained

Defining the 4-day work week isn’t quite as simple as it sounds. In some instances, usually salaried “white collar” jobs, the 4-day work week is as simple as chopping off 1 workday each week and having employees work 32 hours instead of 40. The thought process, essentially, is what’s known as Parkinson’s law: "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Put another way, happier employees can accomplish in 32 hours what takes unhappy employees 40 hours.

For other companies/industries where 40 hours of work are still necessary, a 4-day work week adds 2 extra hours to each day in exchange for an additional day off. You would typically see this version of a shortened work week for hourly positions or “blue collar” industries where employers do not want to pay the same wage for less work. The 4-day/40 hour week is still favorable over the standard 5-day week for many workers. According to some surveys, 2/3 of Americans would prefer working 4 10-hour days instead of working 5 8-hour days.