Spain Offers To Pay Companies Trying Out A 4-Day Work Week

Spain is offering to pay companies to join a new program to test out the four-day work week.

What’s going on:

Spanish businesses with fewer than 250 employees have one month to apply for an ambitious government pilot program: cutting their work week to four days while still earning full pay.

The €9.6 million scheme aims to support small and medium-sized industrial firms, with around 25-30% of workers having reduced hours with full salary, and employers being partially compensated up to €200,000 and the consulting costs of designing new work schemes.

Why it matters:

The shortened work week is gaining traction, and a few countries are becoming increasingly interested in implementing it as people begin to value work-life balance more and more.

How it’ll impact the future:

The coastal city of Valencia in Spain is concurrently trialing a four-day work week for an entire month, with the city council allowing 800,000 of its people to enjoy four consecutive Mondays as holidays.

If these trials are a success, this could have massive implications for a future where the four-day work week becomes the norm.