Trials of a four-day workweek in Iceland were called an “overwhelming success” by researchers on Sunday. The Association for Sustainable Democracy (Alda) in Iceland and the UK-based thinktank Autonomy published their findings of two large-scale trials of the program undertaken from 2015 to 2019 of a reduced working week with no cut in pay.
Workers who participated in the trials worked 35-36 hours per week. According to Alda, “worker wellbeing dramatically increased across a range of indicators, from perceived stress and burnout to health and work-life balance.” At the same time, “productivity and service provision remained the same or improved across the majority of trial workplaces.”
“The Icelandic shorter working week journey tells us that not only is it possible to work less in modern times, but that progressive change is possible too,” said Alda researcher Gudmundur D. Haraldsson.
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