A six-hour working day results in happier and healthier employees. It also leads to a higher quality of welfare services and a more sustainable and equal labour market. Despite what some news reports may have indicated, these are the findings from Sweden’s trial of six-hour working days.

A shorter working day is often portrayed as a utopian dream that would be too costly to realise, much as previous work reforms were portrayed in the past. But what if working less is the key to a more sustainable working life?

A shorter working day is not a utopian dream. Rather it fits nicely as a policy tool to create a more sustainable working life and labour market

For the past two years the Swedish city of Gothenburg has undertaken a trial of a six-hour working day at a care home for elderly people. The aim was to find out how it would impact on health and life quality for assistant nurses, as well as the broader socioeconomic benefits and the possibility of creating jobs.

The preliminary results show that a shorter working day lowered sick leave by 10%. Also, the perceived health of the care workers increased considerably in relation to stress and alertness. This was especially apparent in child-caring age groups. Having longer to recuperate and spend time with family is evidently an important factor in creating a sustainable work-life balance.

Residents in the care home also felt they were getting better care and more time with the nurses. In interviews they described staff as more alert and happier. Social activities dramatically increased too, meaning that the higher level of alertness is being put to good use by the staff.

Employing more care workers amounts to approximately a 20% increase in costs; a staggering amount at first glance. But unemployment, poor working conditions, early retirement and sick leave are hugely expensive to society. But some of the cost of employing the new care workers is offset by lower payments from the social security system, and the net increase in cost drops to approximately 10%. It is worth noticing that the calculation still doesn’t take into account any long-term effects, which are sure to lower the total even further.

In wider Swedish society sick leave has increased considerably in the care sector in recent years. Caring for children and elderly people is work predominantly carried out by women. It is also an area that doesn’t benefit in the same way as many male-dominated sectors do from automation and technology. Care work is heavy-duty, face-to-face labour, tiring for both the mind and body. Little has changed over time for care workers, except one thing: the economic constraints have grown tighter. The six-hour working day project indicates that an improvement in working conditions has a clear impact on the quality of care.

Sweden sees benefits of six-hour working day in trial for care workers Read more

In many European countries, policy makers struggle to increase women’s participation in the labour market without a decrease in the birthrate. The demands of working life impose heavily on family life, and these have proved hard to reconcile in many countries. The experiences of this project show that women with children benefit most from a shorter working day. Creating a more sustainable working life where there is time to both recuperate and help your children with their homework is one way to both increase parents’ access to work and alleviate some of the discriminatory factors that still make women the main provider of unpaid work.

Increasing labour market participation is not only about creating a more equal labour market but a more sustainable one. The retirement age is a fixed point in many countries. But in physically demanding professions such as construction or care, working until you’re 65 represents a greater challenge. And working until 67 or beyond seems more like a joke than reality. Early retirement is not only an economic problem for society but a devastating blow for individuals who risk having to spend their old age in poverty. More flexible working hours can help with this.

A shorter working day is not a utopian dream. Rather it is a policy tool in a reform agenda to create a more sustainable working life and labour market. Given the attention in international media this small pilot project in Gothenburg has received, it is clear that it’s an issue that attracts broad interest. This shouldn’t be neglected but met with a serious debate on the benefits of working less but better.