Book review: The Case for a Four Day Week

Another book in ‘the case for‘ series from Polity Books, this slim volume considers the arguments for a four day week. Written by three researchers from the New Economics Foundation, it’s a clear and concise introduction to the question of working hours.

“In this book we set out arguments for a four day week because we think the world would be a better place – and our lives would be much improved – if we spent less time working for money and had more time at our own disposal.”

There are many benefits to a shorter working week. The most obvious is that people having more time for themselves reduces stress and makes them happier. More time means more leisure, but also more time for care, for volunteering, for participative democracy and civic life. Provided it’s not compulsory, and people who want to work long hours can continue to do so if they wish, it’s a win for human freedom.

This used to be an easier case to make. Work hours during the industrial revolution were long and oppressive, and people tended to get one day off a week. It was a long struggle to wrestle time back from the bosses, to secure a two day weekend and gradually reduce working time. A lot of this was down to the unions and the power of collective bargaining. There was nothing inevitable about eight hours and five days.

More recently, the gains in many countries have levelled off. There doesn’t seem to be much of a consensus around shorter work hours as a form of progress. With some notable exceptions, such as France and its political wrangling over work time, it’s more or less disappeared from public debate.

This is a mistake, and it’s not just about time off. It’s about who is working and who is not. It is bizarre that millions of people are overworked and wish they could reduce their hours, while millions of others are unemployed or on zero hour contracts that don’t deliver enough work to live on. You’d think we’d be able to sort that out.

You’ve also got the equity issues of unpaid care, which is disproportionately done by women. This work has always been overlooked by capitalism, as described in Katrine Marcal’s wonderful book Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? Taking another look at work time could allow for a rebalancing of unpaid work across the sexes.

The Case for a Four Day Week looks at these issues in five chapters and 120 pages. It investigates some challenges, and looks at previous examples from around the world. Some places have pursued shorter hours through national campaigns. Others through unions, or business driven initiatives. There’s less about this latter category, which is a shame given the number of firms experimenting during Covid – but perhaps the book is just a few months early to be able to capture that learning.

There are some unusual ideas here that I’d not come across before in my fairly extensive reading around work time. (For example, a company in the Netherlands has an inter-generational work hours scheme that transfers hours from older to younger staff.) But for the most part it’s a solid introduction to the issue of time, and why it deserves more political attention.

• The Case for A Four Day Week is available from Earthbound Books UK and US.