Fewer working hours improve health, social welfare

Reducing the working week from 40 hours to 30 is not what all employees exactly crave, but it could be economically beneficial, the New Economics Foundation says. Fewer working hours would create more jobs, improve health and stimulate social life.

Modern life provides people with a number of opportunities as never before. However, work consumes free time and drains energy. In order to decrease working hours and make-part time full-time, companies can give their employees more leisure time instead of increasing wages.

A group of eight economists from the New Economics Foundation suggested, that the passage from a 40 to a 30-hour working week would ease employees’ lives, improve health, open up more opportunities and stimulate social life – proof of the theory stated in the “Time on our side” book.

Time is money. The experience of some western countries may prove it’s visa-versa.  Belgium and The Netherlands have a 30-hour working week without causing any damage to the economy.  The average German worker puts in 35 hours a week, however the German economy is the world’s fourth largest. The country also excludes Sunday workdays, and the unemployment rate confidently sits at 5 per cent, while in the United States it’s 7 per cent.

“If higher paid workers started to work less hours, it would become a desirable thing. It would be something to aspire to,” Anna Coote, the “Time on our side” co-author asserts.  Historically, the trend has been going down since the 19th century. At that time some people suffered 7-day work weeks, enduring 15 hours a day, 6 days a week, plus 8 to 10 hours on Sunday.  In the 20th century ideas of social equality coupled with industrial action and the setting up of unions reformed and improved these drastic working hours.

Today’s reduced working week will lower the pressure on careers, and free up time for both male and female employees. This will help couples achieve a good work life balance so that they can juggle their domestic responsibilities and maintain better family life.

Lack of time and money are cancers in society and inequalities between the rich and poor are widening. The difference between those who have plenty of control over their time and those who don’t should be diminished.

According to expert opinion, more than a quarter of reported sickness is due to work problems. Results of a recent poll, carried out by the European association for the fight against depression, showed that every fourth Briton lives in stress. While in Italy, people with depression account for only 12 per cent of the population.

Economists are sure that reduced working weeks will mean less illness among employees, which will lead to more productivity and create new jobs. The authors of the research recognise that employees will earn less, but that in the long run it will be beneficial for society and the environment.

If a 4-day working week was introduced, a typical work week for any given employee and their additional day off might be scheduled as follows: 1st Monday of month, 2nd Tuesday of month, 3rd Thursday of month, the 4th Friday of month. The new day off will ease pressures at work and reduce the instances of pretending to be sick to get time off.

Finally, reducing the working week will decrease road traffic in densely populated cities, and help the authorities alleviate the strain and cost of running transport hubs, rail networks and roads. NEF is a liberal British think-tank. It was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit (TOES) with the aim of working for a “new model of wealth creation, based on equality, diversity and economic stability”.

The foundation has at least 50 staff in London and is active at a range of different levels. Its programmes include work on well-being, its own kinds of measurement and evaluation, sustainable local regeneration, its own forms of finance and business models, sustainable public services, and the economics of climate change.

 (Agencies)