Two versions of the four-day week
In the compressed version, weekly hours stay about the same, so each of the four days gets longer: a 40-hour week becomes four days of about 10 hours. In the reduced-hours version, employees work about 80 percent of the hours, for example 32 hours over four days, for 100 percent of the pay, in return for keeping 100 percent of the output. The two differ sharply in cost and in how the working day feels, so be clear which one you mean.
Working hours rules and the four-day week
Longer days need a check against the law. The OSH Code caps ordinary daily work at eight hours, with the spread-over and weekly limits set by notification, and work beyond the prescribed hours is treated as overtime, payable at twice the ordinary wage rate and only with the worker's consent. A compressed week of 10-hour days therefore has to be checked against the hours rules notified for your establishment and state. If the extra daily hours count as overtime, the model costs more than it looks.
Who can try it
Run a pilot with clear measures: output, quality, customer response times and employee feedback. Stagger the off day so that the business still runs five or six days a week, for example half the team off on Monday and half on Friday.
- Knowledge teams with measurable output, such as software or design
- Back-office teams that can stagger days off and keep coverage
- Hard for customer-facing or shift-based operations without extra staff
- Best tested with one team for a quarter before any wider rollout
See it on your own data
A 30-minute demo on a video call. We set up your departments, shifts and leave rules and show attendance, leave and payroll running for your team. Free for your first 50 employees.
Book a free demoSee pricingFrequently asked questions
What should a company check before starting a four-day week?
Check three things. First, whether the longer days of a compressed week fit the daily hours, spread-over and weekly limits notified for your establishment, since hours past the prescribed limit are paid as overtime at double the ordinary rate. Second, whether customers and other teams can still reach you five days a week. Third, how leave, holidays and pay will be counted in a four-day week.
How does leave work in a four-day week?
Leave is usually recalculated in hours or in four-day-week days, so that one day of leave covers one of the longer or standard working days. Holidays that fall on the regular off day need a rule too: some companies give another day off, others do not. Decide these points before the pilot starts so employees are not surprised.