Juliet Schor (Boston College, Sociology)

"Does the future of work mean less work? Evidence from company four day week trials"

The debate about the “Future of Work” has largely been dominated by discussion of technology on the one hand, and impacts on the availability of jobs and wages on the other. This has been particularly true with the advent of LLMs. A noticeable absence is the role of working hours. Yet historical evidence on earlier periods of rapid labor-saving technical change suggests its importance. In this talk I will discuss a multi-year research effort which followed a series of trials in which groups of companies instituted four-day, thirty-two hour schedules with no reduction in pay. The trials took place from 2022-2026 in fifteen countries and have involved more than 400 companies and approximately 13,000 employees. Major findings are that metrics of employee well-being and work experience show significant improvements and that roughly 90% of the organizations are retaining the new schedule. These findings have potential Implications for AI policy and the Future of Work.