Key Points:
- In the 19th Century, people typically worked six, 12-hour days a week.
- By 1939, the standard workweek in Australia had reduced to 44 hours, spread over 5.5 days.
- The standard 38-hour week most Australians now work was introduced in 1988.
For decades, the standard 38-hour workweek has been spread across five days.
But in recent years, some companies have begun trialling a four-day, 32-hour workweek.
The thinking behind it is that a shorter workweek will give employees a better work-life balance, while also increasing productivity.
The results of what's been touted as
, giving some weight to those assumptions.
Between last June and December, almost 3,000 employees across 61 firms in the UK took part in the trial, which was organised by non-profit group 4 Day Week Global alongside the think tank Autonomy, the University of Cambridge and Boston College in the United States.
Researchers found that the reduction in work days didn't have a negative impact on productivity, with company revenue increasing 1.4 per cent on average over the trial. The overall health and well-being of workers also improved, as did staff retention.
More than 90 per cent of the firms who took part in the trial said they planned to keep the four-day workweek in place.
Why do we have a five-day working week?
Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney Business School, Tony Veal, said the move to a five-day week began with a push to first
.
In the early Industrial Revolution, people typically worked 12-hour days, six days a week, with Sunday as their only day off, he said.
Through strike action in 1856, stonemasons in Victoria became the first Australian workers to achieve an eight-hour working day with no loss of pay.
But it took 60 years for it to become the standard for workers across Victoria and NSW, with the Eight Hours Act not passed in the states' parliaments until 1916.
In 1920, Australian timber workers and engineers were awarded a 44-hour — or 5.5 day — workweek, which was then applied to all industries in 1939. That meant, for most people, working Monday to Friday and then a half day on Saturday.
"Wage negotiations that begin in one industry where unions are strong, or it's highly profitable, then often extend to other industries in time," Profesor Veal said.
It was almost a decade later, in 1948, that the Commonwealth Arbitration Court approved a 40-hour, five-day working week for all Australians in 1948.
Before widespread change in Australia, some employers in countries including the US also reduced workers' hours without cutting their pay.
"You do have the example of Henry Ford, who himself introduced the 40-hour week when everybody else was on 50 in the 1920s," Professor Veal said.
"Kellogg did the same, but they were just seen as pioneer and rather quirky companies, and the rest of the industry didn't necessarily follow their lead until much later."
The standard 38-hour week worked by most Australians was introduced in 1988.
Will everyone eventually move to a four-day work week?
Mark Wooden, professorial fellow with the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research said while a four-day, 32-hour week may be beneficial for some companies, the idea that it could be scaled up, economy-wide is “nonsensical”.
He said for industries that provide in-person service, such as education, healthcare, aged care, and hairdressers, it simply wouldn’t be cost-effective.
"A nurse can't just say, 'right, I won't be on the ward on Friday, I'm going to only work Monday to Thursday'," he said.
"Of course, they have all sorts of rosters, but the bottom line is, if they have to cut the hours by 20 per cent, they're going have to find 20 per cent more people to cover them."
