Four day weeks can help companies survive and save jobs

The five day working week is a relatively recent development. In the 1930s a two day weekend was introduced to cut job losses. Just under 100 years later, we are faced with the same predicament. The pandemic has caused many job losses, and many companies have administered pay cuts. A way of tackling this is to create a four day working well. It is suggested that a four day working week will have the impact of creating half a million new jobs in the public sector alone in the UK, according to a thinktank, Autonomy.^[1] Whilst cutting salaries, and the UK's furlough scheme may be a temporary solution, a transition into a four day week would save many companies from having to close down. The Labour Party had also sought to implement this according to their 2019 manifesto. A model to be considered is Germany's Kuzarbeit (short-work) scheme, implemented in the wake of the 2008 recession. This model was inspired by Margaret Thatcher's scheme back in the 1980's. The government subsidised the pay cut of many employees to avoid mass unemployment. The same scheme has been rolled out during the pandemic to help avoid job losses in Germany. ^[2]