4 Day Work Week Coming Soon?

Not so fast. Even though California’s Democrat majority legislature introduced Assembly Bill 2932, that would have mandated a 4 day work week (or 32 hours) for companies with 500 or more employees, the bill has stalled in the legislature. The bill missed the April 29th deadline that was required for legislative policy committees to be taken under consideration by fiscal committees.

Opponents of the bill cited increased cost of labor to these large companies, as after 32 hours of work, the employees would have been paid at a rate of at least 1 and a 1/2 time the employee’s regular rate of pay.

Iceland did a trial of a shortened workweek from 2015-2019 which saw 1% of the workforce trialed. Those included in the trial worked from 35-36 hours each week. The results of the trial showed that productivity either remained the same or increased across the majority of the workplaces in the trial. Additionally, workers in the trial saw their wellbeing dramatically increase- including reduced stress, and a better work-life balance.