A Shorter Working Week | new economics foundation

21 hours (pdf) is a publication from the new economics foundation that makes the case for shorter working weeks as part of a more sustainable economy.

This report sets out arguments for a much shorter working week. It proposes a radical change in what is considered ‘normal’ – down from 40 hours or more, to 21 hours. While people can choose to work longer or shorter hours, we propose that 21 hours – or its equivalent spread across the calendar year – should become the standard that is generally expected by government, employers, trade unions, employees, and everyone else. ...

The idea of a ‘normal’ job as a contract of paid employment for a nine-to-five, five-day week (or more) has a heavy grip on us all. But it doesn’t reflect the way most people live their lives, which is infinitely more varied. It doesn’t begin to convey the great diversity of hours worked for payment between and within different groups – not least between women and men. ...

A 21-hour week, or its equivalent in hours spread across a month or year, ... forces us to consider a different set of relationships between time, money, and consumption, as well as how these new co-ordinates might affect the distribution of power between people and groups, what really matters for human well-being, and how we can carve out a sustainable future. ...

A 21-hour week would help get people off the consumer treadmill. If a much shorter working week became the norm, with everyone using their time differently and many people earning less, ideas would change about what really makes a good life and how much money is ‘enough’ to live on. ...

In addressing these questions, three things must be borne in mind. First, 21 hours is not a prescription, but a provocation. We want to overturn current assumptions about work and time, and change what is considered ‘normal’. That’s why the vision is a radical one – to shake up ideas and get people thinking about a significant shift in the direction of travel. Secondly, a much shorter working week cannot be suddenly imposed and will not happen overnight. The aim is to consider how to make small steps towards a radical transformation. Thirdly, our proposal for a significant reduction in paid working hours is part of a bigger picture that includes a no-growth economy and zero carbon emissions.

One person writing about similar ideas has been Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College. From Schor's paper "Sustainable Consumption and Worktime Reduction" (pdf):

This article argues that in the global North a successful path to sustainability will entail a stabilization of consumption through reductions in hours of work, a solution that neither ecologists nor economists have addressed seriously. The article presents data on the slowdown of hours reductions in many countries and discusses the need for policy intervention to counter firm-level disincentives to reducing hours of work. It then discusses the potential popularity of work-hour reductions with consumers. It ends with an argument that technological changes will be insufficient to achieve sustainable consumption patterns and that averting continued increases in the scale of consumption through trading income for time is imperative.