Four-Day Work Week

A compressed schedule where employees work four days instead of five — most commonly 32 hours at full pay — without a reduction in salary.

A four-day work week is any arrangement in which employees work four days instead of the traditional five-day, 40-hour schedule. The most widely discussed version is the '100-80-100' model: 100% of pay, 80% of the time, 100% of productivity output. This is distinct from a compressed work week (four 10-hour days, still 40 hours total) — the four-day work week movement focuses on a genuine 32-hour week at no pay cut, based on the premise that working fewer hours doesn't have to mean producing less.

The evidence base is growing. Iceland's government-led trials from 2015-2019 (involving 2,500 workers — over 1% of the workforce) found that productivity remained the same or improved when hours were cut, and worker wellbeing improved significantly. Microsoft Japan ran a four-day week experiment in 2019 and reported a 40% productivity jump. A 2022 pilot coordinated by 4 Day Week Global involved 61 companies; after six months, 56 of 61 chose to continue the model. Quit rates fell, revenues were maintained, and workers reported better sleep, mental health, and life satisfaction.

Not all implementations are equal. Some companies genuinely reduce hours and restructure how work gets done — eliminating unnecessary meetings, improving focus, cutting low-value tasks. Others simply compress 40 hours into four days, which often leads to burnout in a different shape. The key distinction is whether the company has examined why five days were needed in the first place, or is just rearranging the same work into a shorter window.