Four-Day Workweek Proposals Return to State Capitols

A couple of years ago, the idea of switching to a four-day workweek seemed to be catching on in state legislatures.

As many as six states, including Maryland, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, considered it, although no state has actually mandated it for all workers.

But the proposal has made a bit of a comeback this year.

In Maine, Sen. Rick Bennett (R) is carrying a resolution (SB 735a) calling for a pilot project to encourage businesses to adopt a four-day workweek.

“This proposal is rooted in a simple principle,” Bennett told the Maine Morning Star. “Maine people work hard and they deserve to thrive, not just survive.”

Meanwhile, in New York, Sen. Jennifer Ramos (D) has introduced a bill (SB 5629) that would redefine the workweek as consisting of 32 hours instead of 40.

Also in the Empire State, Assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest (D) is sponsoring AB 5423, which would establish a four-day workweek pilot program for state employees.

Lawmakers in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Vermont are also considering four-day workweek proposals, according to the LexisNexis® State Net® legislative tracking system.

The idea of a four-day workweek dates back to the Nixon administration, but interest in the concept grew after the COVID-19 pandemic as workers sought more flexible schedules.

There’s even an international company, 4 Day Week Global, that’s been established to help companies transition to a four-day workweek. It argues, “When the workweek is designed for humans, performance follows. Flexibility fuels performance and time is the most powerful lever we have to create meaningful change. That is why businesses do better with a 4 Day Week.”

Handful of States Exploring Idea of Four-Day Workweek

At least five states have introduced legislation this year dealing with testing or transitioning to a four-day workweek, according to the LexisNexis State Net legislative tracking system. The five states are all located in the East or Northeast.

Supporters Say Four Days More Appropriate for Modern World

The idea of a four-day workweek is difficult, if not impossible, for many people to accept or even conceive. In that same Maine Morning Star article, another Pine Tree State lawmaker, Tracy Quint (R), dismissed the pending proposal there, saying “Working five days a week, that’s part of being an adult.”

Indeed, the five-day, 40-hour workweek has been ingrained in the American psyche since at least the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. That bill, which established ideas like the minimum wage and overtime pay, was the result of more than 100 years of U.S. workers fighting for better hours and pay.

In 1989, for example, cooks in Massachusetts worked between 78 and 83 hours a week (for about 9 cents an hour).

So by those standards, the five-day, 40-hour workweek was downright humane.

But the thinking about work has changed a lot over the ensuing decades. So has technology.

Research has shown that the satisfaction of workers improves when companies try a four-day workweek, as does their retention. At the same time, advances in things like artificial intelligence have made workers more efficient.

“As a result of the extraordinary technological revolution that has taken place in recent years and decades, American workers are more than 400% more productive than they were in the 1940s,” Vermont’s U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said. “And yet, almost all of the economic gains from these technological achievements have been going straight to the top.”

Sanders, a two-time presidential candidate, says that with the AI and robotics poised to “radically transform our economy, it is time to make sure that working people benefit from this increased productivity, not just corporate CEOs and the billionaire class.

“It’s time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life. It’s time for a 32-hour work week with no loss in pay.”

Critics Say Four-Day Workweek Untenable

As you might imagine, there’s a lot of pushback against statements like Sanders’. Some companies in the United Kingdom that have tried a four-day workweek reported that a shorter, more intense schedule left workers exhausted.

“For many employees, the expectation to deliver the same results in fewer hours means working at a faster pace, with little room for error or downtime,” Benjamin Laker, a professor of leadership at the University of Reading’s Henley Business School in the UK, wrote for Forbes. “The pressure to perform can feel overwhelming, as there’s less flexibility to manage unforeseen tasks, unexpected meetings, or emergencies. Instead of fostering a relaxed, balanced atmosphere, the four-day workweek can intensify the stress to meet deadlines in a shorter timeframe.”

For customer-facing businesses, a shorter workweek for employees means greater staffing costs to keep the company going. Also, in today’s modern economy that knows no boundary between a state or country, there are concerns that the state or the nation as a whole could fall behind competitors.

“We have collectively worked 40 hours a week for decades and our entire economic, financial, and social systems are built around this structure,” wrote futurist and author Jacob Morgan last year. “Even though research might say it’s the best thing since sliced bread, it still won’t happen on any mainstream level.”

That doesn’t mean it won’t continue cropping up in state capitols. Are these new handful of bills a blip, or the beginning of a new wave? That remains to be seen.

—By SNCJ Correspondent BRIAN JOSEPH

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