Most Iceland Workers Shift To Four-Day Work Week With Positive Results

Labor unions and civil society organizations pushed Iceland to move to a four-day workweek — with positive results.

From 2015 to 2019, there were two large-scale trials of shorter working hours — moving from a 40- hour to a 35- or 36-hour week — without reduced pay. One was conducted in Reykjavík, Iceland's capital, followed by the other which began between the Icelandic government and BSRB, a trade union confederation, in 2017. These two trials combined to include more than 1% of the country’s working population.

Why is this important? Productivity remained the same or improved and worker well-being rose as workers felt less stressed and less likely to burnout, according to the report’s findings.

Following the trials, trade unions fought for a four-day workweek for 86% of Iceland’s workforce, which was implemented sporadically between 2019 and 2021.

Today, that percentage of the population is already working four days per week or has the option to do so.

Since 2015, when Iceland began testing out the idea, the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased significantly from $17.52 billion to $21.71 billion, according to Trading Economics.

In developing countries, “not only does greater productivity usually correlate with shorter work hours, but as productivity increases, working hours tend to go down over time,” the report said.

Some companies around the world have already shifted to a four-day workweek.

When Microsoft Japan, a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation MSFT, tested the idea in 2019, productivity jumped about 40% and the vast majority of employees approved of the idea, according to reporting from The Guardian.

Shake Shack Inc SHAK has been testing a four-day, 40-hour workweek since 2019, and has seen its stock price rise since that time.