Illustration by Sarah Angèle Wilson
This article appears in the August 2022 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here.
When organizer and researcher Aidan Harper first began advocating for a four-day workweek in Britain, six or seven years back, he remembers being treated like a novelty act, like surfing dogs.
Over the past couple of years, though, things have changed. Now, governments across Europe are backing trials of shorter workweeks, companies are offering it as a perk, and when he is invited on the radio, instead of being mocked, he’s earnestly asked how it will work.
A shorter workweek was long a part of the agenda for the left and the labor movement, and seemed to be common sense. In “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” first published in 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that over the next century, the workweek would fall to just 15 hours. Instead, workers have seen productivity diverge from pay, rising inequality, and for many Americans, increased work hours.
Can we reverse that trend, and reclaim some of our time? A growing number of labor organizers and advocates around the world say we can.
Juliet Schor, economist at Boston College and author of The Overworked American, has been trying to figure out how to shorten our working hours since the 1990s. In the last few years, she’s found people more receptive to the idea. “It feels like now, a four-day week has become common sense, whereas five years ago, it would...
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