Why the US is More Skeptical than the UK About Introducing a 4-Day Workweek [Jjinbit]

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunjin Jeong] "The United States had a culture much more organized around work compared to the United Kingdom. When I was growing up (in the UK), there was no heroism around long working hours."

Matthew Bidwell, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an American business school (MBA), recalled his first arrival from the UK to the US in the 1990s this way. In an article titled "Can the US adopt a four-day workweek?" released by Wharton School at the end of last month, Professor Bidwell described the US as a "workaholic country" with very little vacation. He firmly stated, "I don't think (a four-day workweek becoming the US standard) will happen anytime soon."

Bidwell's Wharton colleagues, Professors Lindsey Cameron and Michael Park, agreed. Professor Cameron said, "Honestly, (US) employers don't believe that the work done over five days can be completed in four," adding, "It's easier to manage spatial flexibility than temporal flexibility." Professor Park noted that although there are complaints about old work methods, "since money has to be made, employees find balance within that," expressing skepticism about the spread of the four-day workweek in the US.

◆ A 300-hour annual difference in working hours between the UK and the US

The reason the three Wharton professors expressed skepticism at this point is because experiments on the four-day workweek will begin next month in the US and Canada. The nonprofit organization 4 Day Week Global is conducting experiments based on the principle of maintaining 100% pay while reducing working hours by 80% and keeping productivity the same as before. Since April, about 40 companies have been conducting the first phase of the experiment for six months, and an additional 20 companies in the US and Canada will start the experiment next month. This experiment is also being conducted on a large scale in the UK. With about 70 companies and 3,300 participants, it is considered the "world's largest four-day workweek experiment."

Changes in work environment such as working hours or workplace location inevitably consider regional characteristics. This is because differences in perception and culture are clearly reflected depending on the country or region. Since the experiments in the UK and the US are still ongoing, we have to wait for the results. It is noteworthy whether differences in working environments between the two countries will affect the adoption of the four-day workweek.

Comparing the working hours of the two countries based on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) standards, last year Americans worked a total of 1,791 hours per person, while the British worked 1,497 hours. Converted to a condition of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, Americans worked more than 7 weeks longer than the British last year. Regarding paid vacation, the UK mandates nearly 30 days for regular employees, but the US has no mandatory paid vacation. In the UK, if working more than 6 hours a day, a 20-minute break during the workday is mandatory, but the US does not have such regulations.

US media Axios recently reported that during a railroad strike in the US, participants demanded "paid sick leave," saying that efficiency was maximized to the point that employees' physical and mental health reached its limit. Eventually, they reached an agreement to allow unpaid sick leave. The trend of "quiet quitting" in the US, where working hours are longer compared to Europe or the UK, also stems from this atmosphere. This is likely where Professor Bidwell's skepticism about the spread of the four-day workweek in the US began.

◆ Europe worked more than the US even in the 1960s?

Wall Street is also known as a harsh employer even in the US. Differences in work environments are creating changes here as well. Bloomberg reported on the 14th (local time) that European banks are attracting talent from Wall Street by offering "remote work" options. While major US investment banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are strongly urging employees to return to the office, European banks such as UBS and Deutsche Bank are providing flexibility and poaching talent. Differences in work policies between Europe and the US are influencing hybrid work experiments on Wall Street.

Interestingly, until the 1960s, Europe worked longer hours compared to the US. According to a 2005 paper titled "Work and Leisure in the US and Europe: Why So Different?" by world-renowned urban economist Edward Glaeser of Harvard University and others, published in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) annual report, until the 1960s, working on Saturdays was more common in Europe, and taking long summer vacations was easier in the US. Glaeser and colleagues evaluated that "the differences in work patterns today may seem like an eternal aspect of lifestyles in Europe and the US, but these differences are modern."

Experts believe that over the past 50 years, the baby boomer generation in the US began to regard work as the center of life and reducing leisure time as a kind of virtue, which has continued until now. According to a 2017 marketing paper by Sylvia Bellezza of Columbia Business School and others, people who are busy working and have little leisure time are perceived as wealthy in the US, whereas in Italy they are seen as poor. This was analyzed as the US valuing economic status achieved through effort more than Europe does.

Experiments and discussions about the "future of work" happening worldwide cannot exclude these perceptions and cultures. Workers who live in the same era and share perceptions and cultures are creating the future. What lessons will the four-day workweek experiments in the US and the UK give us?

Editor's Note[Jjinbit] is short for ‘Hyunjin Jeong’s Business Trend’ and ‘Real Business Trend,’ a corner that shows trends in corporate management such as organizational culture and personnel systems. Based on analyses from foreign media and major overseas institutions that have not received much attention so far, we will deliver fresh and differentiated information and perspectives.