Poll: Majority of Americans Want a Four-Day Work Week
Rasmussen recruited 1,000 American adults for this poll. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points with a 95-percent confidence level.
Americans who work above 40 hours weekly on average are open to the idea of working longer shifts to shorten their work weeks to four days, according to a Thursday poll.
Rasmussen Reports conducted the survey on July 19 and July 22 and found 53 percent of Americans would rather have a four-day work week with 10-hour days than five days of eight-hour shifts.
Twenty percent of Americans did not think the switch would make a difference, 15 percent were opposed to a four-day work week and 12 percent were undecided.
Survey questions asked whether the change to four 10-hour shifts was good or bad for employees and whether working four 10-hour days would help, hurt or have no impact on productivity.
American men 25 years and older worked 43.6 hours in an average week while women in the same age group worked an average of 41.0 hours in 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The paycheck for a shorter work week would remain the same, but would require fewer trips to work, according to Nevada Small Business. This could afford American employees a more manageable work-life balance — especially adults with children.
The downsides, however, were scheduling conflicts with the decreased amount of availability for sales, meetings and other administrative tasks. Working an extra two hours a day could also be strenuous for those in labor-intensive jobs.
“The four-day week isn’t for every business or every employee,” Nevada Small Business wrote on its website. “Weigh the options, get input from staff, check the legal implications of switching over to a four-day work week.”
Rasmussen recruited 1,000 American adults for this poll. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points with a 95-percent confidence level.
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