Employees would take a pay cut for a four-day workweek

Some employees are so eager for a four-day workweek that they would accept a pay cut in exchange.

No, really, you read that correctly. One in five of the 1,250 full-time workers surveyed by Resume Builder in April said they’d take a pay cut if it meant only working four days a week.

“People want flexibility in their lives and depending on the position and what it entails, they’re willing to take a pay cut for that,” Julia Toothacre, résumé and career strategist at Resume Builder, told HR Brew. “A lot of people—especially millennials and Gen Z—have a side hustle and [a four-day workweek] gives them more time to be able to do both: have a full-time job with benefits and then also do the thing they’re more passionate about.”

People’s relationships with their careers have changed, Toothacre said, and many want to work for organizations that understand they have lives outside of their jobs. Employers that offer employees flexibility are more likely to engender loyalty in their workforces.

“When you start throwing around a four-day workweek, that screams, ‘I’m an advocate for you in your life,’” Toothacre said. “It shows employees and job-seekers that we care about your work-life balance and we want to try to make that work.”

Zoom out. Only 9% of US employers offer a four-day workweek, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. However, some of the organizations that have adopted this schedule say it has improved recruitment and retention efforts.

Coaching company Exos, for example, is in the midst of an ongoing four-day workweek trial that began last spring. The company reported in April that employee attrition dropped to 29% in 2023 from 47% in 2022. And UK-based environmental consultancy Tyler Grange told CNBC Make It in October of 2022 that visits to its recruitment page jumped by 60% after it adopted a four-day workweek program in June 2022. Several other employers across the pond have reported success with their four-day workweek trials.

Employers can reap the rewards of a four-day workweek, if they implement it correctly, Toothacre said. HR may have to do an in-depth review of each of the organization’s functions to determine if a four-day workweek is realistic.

A four-day workweek is “not about not working, that’s the narrative that has been put out there,” she said. “We want to live our lives. We want flexibility, and we want options.”