The four-day work week

the apartment

What would you do with your time if you only had to work four, three, or even two days a week?

Decades ago, experts predicted we would all be working just 14 to 15 hours a week by now, and would have so much free time, we wouldn't even know what to do with ourselves.

Instead, U.S. workers have been stuck with the official 40-hour workweek -- or even longer for many of us -- since 1938, in order to finance our ever-expensive lifestyles.

The predictions: Back in 1930, renowned economist John Maynard Keynes predicted technological advancements would mean we would all eventually work just 15 hours a week. That same year, evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley predicted the two-day work week. Both men warned that someday, we would have so much leisure time, we would be bored out of our minds.


More recently, a 1965 Senate subcommittee predicted we would be working 14 hours a week by the year 2000, with at least seven weeks of vacation time.

The reality: These great thinkers were right about one thing. Technological progress has made workers more productive than ever before.



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Meanwhile, income gains have been disproportionately distributed throughout the economy. Middle-class wages have largely remained stagnant since the 1980s, after adjusting for inflation, whereas the top 1% richest Americans have captured much of the wealth.

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The 40-hour work week, adopted shortly after the Great Depression, was originally thought of as a job creation tool.


Shortened hours can be used to create jobs, the ILO said, as fewer hours for one worker means more work for another.

And shorter workweeks are not entirely unheard of today.

Since the economic crisis, lots of workers have been forced to shorten their work week as their employers cut back.


Shorter weeks are also common in Europe. In the Netherlands, four-day work weeks are practically the rule, not the exception. And France tried a 35-hour work week for a few years, too.

The average German worker puts in 394 hours less than an American each year -- the equivalent of nearly ten fewer weeks. The country is far smaller than the United States in area, population and resources, yet still manages to compete as the fourth largest economy and third largest exporter in the world.

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Money doesn't buy happiness: In most cases, fewer hours mean workers might have to take a pay cut, and would not be able to buy as much. But in exchange, they'll get more free time, save on child care costs and likely be healthier and happier in general.


When UNICEF recently ranked 21 industrialized nations by well-being for children, Netherlands was on top and the United States was near the bottom, in 20th place.

Guess who also ranked happier with life overall? The Dutch worker.

But Americans still labor on.

"The idea that we can grow our economies forever and ensure everyone a full-time job is a myth," Hunnicutt said. "We have to deliberately choose to work less and therefore buy less."

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