Like a boiling tea kettle, the four-day workweek is gaining steam

Last month, a group of nine lawmakers in Maryland’s House of Delegates proposed a new bill that would provide tax credits to specific employers within the state that agree to try out a 32-hour workweek (vs. the conventional 40 hours) with no loss of pay for employees.

Its sponsor said the bill was inspired by a recent study from nonprofit 4 Day Week Global and Boston College, which took 33 companies through a six-month pilot program of a four-day workweek.

• Employees were told to work 80% of their regularly scheduled hours, in return for 100% of their pay and a pledge to deliver 100% of their standard output.
• And whoever coined the phrase “less is more” may know what they’re talking about. Despite less hours being worked, average revenue at participating companies rose 38% when compared to the same period last year, per the survey.
• After the six-month pilot was over, none of the 27 companies that responded had reverted back to five-day workweeks.

🌍 Zoom out: One of the largest four-day workweek pilot programs in history – spanning 73 UK firms and 3,300+ employees – wrapped up in December, with final results due later this month. At the halfway point of the experiment, more than 95% of participating companies said they’d experienced no loss in productivity, with 49% saying it had actually increased.

Maybe Pipiyopi had it right after all.