Companies around the world adopt four-day work week pilot programs to meet growing demand from Gen-Z and millennial employees
NEW YORK -- With a growing demand for a four-day work week among Gen-Z and millennial employees, how many companies are actually offering the benefit?
CBS New York's Zinnia Maldonado asked the experts about the future of a shorter work week, and what employers and employees would have to be willing to give up.
About 83% of Gen-Z and millennial workers between the ages of 18 and 42 say they support a four-day work week, according to a 2023 Bankrate survey. However, ADP data shows just 12% of U.S. workers say their employer offers the option.
"We did see that younger Americans are more interested and willing to make sacrifices for a four-day work week than older generations," Bankrate analyst Sarah Foster told Maldonado.
Some of those sacrifices include working longer hours, changing jobs or companies and giving up remote work.
"A smaller share, it's about 13%, said that they would be willing to take a pay cut. But you know, there are still people out there who say that they'd rather work a four-day work week than work their current salary," Foster said.
Juliet Schor is the lead researcher for Four Day Week Global, a program that is currently running trials of companies worldwide, including the U.S., that are giving their employees four-day work weeks without pay cuts or increasing their hours.
"It's been, I have to say, kind of remarkable how successful these trials have been for both employees and employers," said Schor.
She said the biggest takeaway is that 95% of the companies that run the pilot do not go back to a five-day schedule.
"The results are really strong, showing big improvements in all kinds of well being measures. We have almost 20 measures of well being looking at things like burnout and stress, positive and negative emotions, anxiety, fatigue, life satisfaction, job time satisfaction, work and family conflict, work life conflict -- all of those things improve measurably," Schor said.
There are currently bills in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania pushing for four-day work week pilot programs that would provide tax cuts to companies that participate. The programs would also provide important data other employers can use to implement the change more strategically in the future.
Schor believes the number of U.S. companies offering the four-day week is expected to grow quickly in the next few years.
