The Four-Day Workweek

For most of human history, work has been largely hunting and gathering, agrarian, and hand-based (cobblers, smiths, and the like), and work schedules have depended on demand, seasons, weather, and daylight hours.[1]

The Industrial Revolution (beginning in the 18th century) introduced social and economic change on a vast scale by introducing newly invented machinery, such as the combustion engine and the spinning jenny, that greatly accelerated productivity. These changes spurred the factory system and urbanization, displacing artisans and radically changing how workers worked. Many of them left their homes and farms for the factory, where working hours were set not by nature but by employers. The rise of mass production and the assembly line only exacerbated these workplace changes, often to the detriment of the worker.[1]

The worker exploitation that followed in the wake of the Industrial Revolution was felt throughout the industrialized world. Workers—including women and children, some as young as three—were notoriously mistreated. Estimates vary, but most experts agree that workers in the United Kingdom were required to work about 12 to 16 hours a day, six days a week—72 to 96 hours a week—in the 19th century. Estimates for the United States were slightly lower by 1830, totaling about 69 hours per week.[2][3][4][5]

Throughout the 1800s, workers, reformers, and labor unions lobbied against child labor and for shorter working hours (primarily an eight-hour workday) and safer working conditions, and many workers protested by going on strike. On May 19, 1869, Ulysses S. Grant released “Proclamation 182—Eight Hour Work Day for Employees of the Government of the United States,” which limited government “laborers, workmen, and mechanics” to eight-hour workdays and he encouraged the private sector to follow suit. Working Saturdays, however, remained common, meaning workers routinely only had one day off each week—Sunday. But this also soon changed, when in 1908, a New England mill became the first American factory to close on Saturdays, too, so Jewish workers could observe the Sabbath, thereby instituting a five-day workweek.[5][6][7]

In 1926, Henry Ford also enacted a five-day workweek—popularizing the concept of the two-day “weekend”—in Ford Motor Company factories, after previously having instituted an eight-hour workday. This shorter workweek was codified into law with the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938. This act originally set the workweek at 44 hours per week but reduced it to 42 hours in 1939 and to the now-standard 40 in 1940; shorter workweeks were not only a key way of keeping more workers employed during the Great Depression, but employers also saw them as ways of reducing absenteeism and improving efficiencies—Henry Ford, for example, saw the shorter eight-hour work shifts as perfect for running his factories all day, for 24 hours. The FLSA officially made the two-day weekend a reality for American workers.[6][8][9][10][35][36]

The five-day (in-person, on-site) 40-hour workweek remained standard until the COVID-19 pandemic (beginning in March 2020), when working at home with flexible hours became commonplace. During and after the pandemic, many workers quit their jobs or refused to return to their offices after the work-at-home mandates had been lifted, leading observers to call this period the “Great Resignation.” Employees quit for many reasons, including fear and concern about COVID safety precautions, a desire for better pay and a better work-life balance, and a reassessment of personal priorities, especially in light of the increasing availability of at-home work. The popularity of remote work emboldened the post-pandemic push for a four-day workweek.[11][12]

In the United States, senators and representatives have introduced legislation to reduce the workweek to 32 hours many times since Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) first did so in 1985. More recently, Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have both introduced the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act. Some observers have even predicted a shorter workweek. Famed economist John Maynard Keynes, who died in 1946, believed that a 15-hour workweek would be possible by 2030, all due to the improved efficiencies gained from evolving technology. [13][14][15][16][17][18][36]

Not waiting for guidance from the federal government, private companies have experimented with their own unique work schedules. These various schemes include:

• 4-32: Employees work 32 hours in four days (8-hour days) and have one day off during the week (generally Friday). This is the work schedule most often referred to as a four-day workweek.
• 4-10 (also called a compressed schedule): Employees work 40 hours in four days (10-hour days) and have one day off during the week (generally Friday).
• 6-hour workdays: Employees work 6 hours per day for five days a week, totaling only 30 hours per week.
• 9-80: Employees work 80 hours over nine days instead of ten and get every other Friday off.
• 9-72: Employees work regular 8-hour days for 9 days, totaling 72 hours, and have every other Friday off.
• Half-day Fridays: Employees have Friday afternoons off, which is a common schedule in the summer. [19][20]

There are even new work schedules demanding more, not fewer, weekly hours from workers. The 996 model is designed for hyper-productivity, especially in the tech industry, and requires employees to work from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week, for a total of 72 hours per week. This model originated in China’s tech industry and was highly controversial, but some Silicon Valley tech companies and startups in the U.S. have also adopted this model. This workweek is associated with heavy stress and worker burnout.[34]

So, given that the five-day workweek was a response to the Industrial Revolution, is the four-day workweek more appropriate for the tech revolution? Explore the debate below.

The following is a ProCon Quick Take debate, an abbreviated version of our longer features. ProCon will expand on this topic in the future.

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Discussion Questions

1. Should companies adopt a four-day workweek? Why or why not?
2. What schedule would you like to work? How would that schedule benefit the company and benefit you? Explain your answer.
3. Explore the potential environmental impact of a four-day workweek. Do you think the change would benefit or harm the environment? Explain your answer.