This aspect of the four day week idea has been missing from the discourse. For the avoidance of doubt, I absolutely support it. But the proposal must explicitly include hourly paid workers (for whom it means a 25% increase in hourly pay) and it must explicitly include workers whose productivity cannot possibly increase by 25% to make up for the missing hours because of the nature of the work (whether it’s answering phones or assembling widgets).
In this real world that we live in, where employers are free to pick and choose which employees it applies to, it’s very hard to see it leading to equitable outcomes.
This aspect of the four day week idea has been missing from the discourse. For the avoidance of doubt, I absolutely support it. But the proposal must explicitly include hourly paid workers (for whom it means a 25% increase in hourly pay) and it must explicitly include workers whose productivity cannot possibly increase by 25% to make up for the missing hours because of the nature of the work (whether it’s answering phones or assembling widgets).
In this real world that we live in, where employers are free to pick and choose which employees it applies to, it’s very hard to see it leading to equitable outcomes.