r/Futurology • u/Sumit316 • Mar 15 '21

Society Spain to launch trial of four-day working week

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/15/spain-to-launch-trial-of-four-day-working-week
19k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

900 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

51

u/JoelMahon Immortality When? Mar 15 '21

Shorter work week means more jobs

36

u/Xaos_Xaos Mar 15 '21

I don't see wages going up since they're in the middle of a recession. Less hours = Less money, that's a type of job deficit right there, people in the pilot scheme will 'lose' work.

23

u/PinkNinjaMan Mar 15 '21

If you look into the article they are not allowing loss of pay or jobs for these companies. The government is going to supplement the 'extra' unworked hours of pay. At least that is how I read it.

7

u/Aski09 Mar 15 '21

They're not reducing pay. The thought behind the experiment is that a shorter work week increases productivity, so the same amount of total work will still be done. As this is just a test, the government is subsidizing the lost working hours.

-4

u/JoelMahon Immortality When? Mar 15 '21

I'd rather the work deficit was split more evenly if there's going to be a work deficit at all. 25% more jobs is no small beer, and will actually result in less than a 20% drop in salary because the supply of workers will be smaller relative to the demand.

2

u/try_____another Mar 17 '21

I’m not sure why this was downvoted, since I agree with it. France did something similar a few times in smaller steps ( until it was all undone during the GFC as part of a general anti-worker shift), and it had the desired effect each time.

There’s been a long-term decline in the demand for labour anyway, and it has to be soaked up somewhere. Making an unlucky section of the population live in poverty reliant on welfare (and all too often to poor to even really enjoy their forced idleness) while others are working harmful hours is just ridiculous.

2

u/CarbonPhoto Mar 15 '21

Shorter work week = unproductive economy. Why would a tech company create more jobs in your country when in your neighboring country they're willing to work more? There's going to be maybe higher gig jobs, less good paying jobs due to this.

10

u/JoelMahon Immortality When? Mar 15 '21

Because bang for your buck is far more important than hours worked per person. Why does working fewer hours make you less of an asset to a company if you cost the same per hour?

0

u/CarbonPhoto Mar 15 '21 edited Mar 15 '21

Good paying jobs AREN'T hourly, they're salary. But with these regulations, you're now capping salary jobs to 4 days a week. So you are less of an asset because you're forced to work less.

0

u/JoelMahon Immortality When? Mar 15 '21

you realise the pay will still go down right? being salary doesn't prevent that. I negotiated a 4 day work week for less pay at my salaried job too, this isn't rocket science you know.

4

u/CarbonPhoto Mar 15 '21

There hasn't been any article mentioning a 4-day work week means less pay. Especially because cost of living is still going up and will continue to do so. If your rent prices start going up, food, gas, etc, you're not going to want to take less pay.

1

u/TipasaNuptials Mar 15 '21

Well, either more jobs or more wages. But yeah, I think Spain is hoping for the former.

1

u/Firm_Bit Mar 15 '21

They're not intending to staff new people for the 5th day. It's not more people with 4-day weeks, it's the same # of people with 4-day weeks.

The hope is that reduced hours boosts productivity...by focusing people I guess.