Iceland’s shorter working week trial was hailed as an overwhelming success

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Residential real estate stands on the city skyline in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Arnaldur Halldorsson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A long-running trial of a shorter work week was hailed in Iceland as “a landslide success”, with the vast majority of the country’s workers since then awarded contracts to shorten their working hours.

A report analyzing the impact of the trial found that by June 2021, about 170,200 union members of Iceland’s 196,700 working population were covered under shorter working hour contracts.

This means that 86% of workers were now either on contract for shorter hours or had “new mechanisms available to them by which they could negotiate shorter hours in their workplace,” according to the report, published Sunday by the think tank Autonomy and Research Association Sustainability and Democracy (Alda). ) in Iceland.

Iceland conducted two large-scale experiments between 2015 and 2019, reducing workweeks to between 35 and 36 hours from 40 hours per week for many, without any pay cut. The trials, eventually involving 2,500 workers, began by the council in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik and the country’s national government.

The experiments included 9-5 regular workers, as well as those working in non-standard shift patterns, and were conducted in a range of workplaces such as offices, children’s homes, social service providers and hospitals.

After the trial, Icelandic trade unions and their federations permanently reduced working hours for tens of thousands of members across the country.

Alda’s autonomy analysis of the results found that reducing working hours actually preserves or increases productivity.

Will Strong, Autonomy’s director of research, said the study showed that “the world’s largest-ever experiment of a shorter work week in the public sector was by all accounts an overwhelming success.”

“It shows that the public sector is poised to be a leader in shorter working weeks – and other governments can learn lessons,” he said.

Data was collected during the trials, measuring indicators such as well-being, performance, and work-life balance.

The results indicated an improved work-life balance among workers, with people finding it easier to do household tasks and making more time for themselves, for example. The report also noted that the men took on more responsibilities around the home after the experiment began, which helped reduce stress at home.

Autonomy and Alda said in their report that “the ability to leverage evidence from existing trials of ‘four days a week’ or similar schemes will become increasingly important to workers, supporting organizations and politicians.”

In fact, Spain is set to try four days a week, while other countries such as Japan, New Zealand, and Finland have shown interest in the concept.

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