California is considering a fourday work week. The bill, backed by Democratic MPs Cristina Garcia and Evan Low, has been tabled in local parliament and would reduce working hours from 40 to 32 hours with no pay cuts. Garcia pointed out that recently 47 million workers have quit their jobs in search of better opportunities (the socalled “big layoff phenomenon” that is spreading around the world) and in the return to postpandemic normalcy to previous conditions pointed out are no longer sufficient. “They want he said better performance that includes free time and more flexibility to do what they love to do, as well as better mental and emotional health.”
Only in big companies
The proposal provides that the “short” week will initially only apply to companies with more than 500 employees. According to the Office for Employment Promotion, there are around 2,600 companies and more than 3.6 million employees. Not everyone agrees with the proposal. Opponents say the law would undermine employment and entail more costs for employers. According to the law, workers who worked more than 32 hours would be paid one and a half times more, and working more than 12 hours a day would result in a week being paid twice the normal wage. This would mean a further increase in costs for companies still recovering from the effects of the pandemic and the resulting increase in commodity prices.
Experimentation started on Kickstarter
“Monte, other companies, and other countries are already doing this Deputy Low, coauthor of the bill told the Los Angeles Times so I think that’s the direction we’re going. That’s going to attract more employees because it It is undeniable that workers are looking for more flexibility ». The proposal is inspired by a model tested in Iceland from 2015 to 2019, which showed that productivity remained unchanged and in some cases even increased by working 35 hours instead of 40. The Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in Brooklin just started experimenting with shorttime work this week and even giant Unilever is testing it in New Zealand to assess the impact on productivity.
The 4 Day Week Global pilot project.
The 4day week seems to be a growing trend. The novelty has already been launched in Belgium, and the first country in the world to do so for all public and private workers was the United Arab Emirates. According to CEO of nonprofit 4 Day Week Global Joe O’Connor speaking to Cnbc, 37 other USCanada companies are participating in the pilot alongside Kickstarter, although some started earlier and others will join later. More than 50 UK companies employing 3,000 people have also signed up for the project and could start testing from early June.