Over the past six years, Iceland has been quietly conducting a major economic experiment. More than 2,500 public sector employees – representing over 1% of the country’s entire working population – reduced their working hours from 40 hours per week to 35 or 36 hours, with no loss of pay.
Trials of shorter working weeks are not new: in recent years a number of ‘four-day week’ experiments have taken place around the world – from Microsoft’s trial in Japan to Unilever’s experiment in New Zealand. But Iceland’s two trials, which took place between 2015 and 2021 among employees of the country’s national government and Reykjavík City Council, are unparalleled in terms of scale and scope. Progress was meticulously monitored by Icelandic researchers, which generated an unrivalled amount of evidence on the impact of shorter working hours. This week the key findings were published in a joint report published by Alda (Association for Sustainable Democracy) and Autonomy.
Despite the variety of workplaces involved, the reduction in working time generated a host of benefits for participants: they felt healthier, had more time to recuperate from work, and saw the atmosphere of their workplaces improve. Even with just two or three hours shaved off the week, people saw immediate improvements in their family life, their relationship to their colleagues and their own self-care. Not only did the trial improve workers’ wellbeing – it also had impressive effects improving ‘per hour’ productivity and service provision.
