It is estimated that US workers are now more than four times as productive as our predecessors 70 years ago, but the hours we’re expected to be on the clock have not gone down. On average, Americans work hundreds more hours a year than Europeans; and globally, worker-engagement rates are, in fact, highest in the US and Canada, but 49% of workers in the US and Canada report feeling stressed at their job, according to Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report.

Now, as AI chatbots disrupt and reshape careers in the creative and legal fields, among others, and automation continues to upend industries such as fast food and manufacturing, some policymakers and industry leaders are calling for and moving toward a four-day, 32-hour workweek.

With nearly one-third of large US firms exploring new schedules like the four-day workweek, according to a 2024 survey of CEOs from KPMG, senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Laphonza Butler (D-CA) introduced legislation in the Senate earlier this year calling for a 32-hour workweek, while Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

Teen Vogue spoke to Sen. Sanders, Úna Harty of 4 Day Week Global, a worldwide organization advocating for the 32-hour workweek, and Dr. Juliet Schor, an economist and sociologist at Boston College, and a lead researcher on a 2022 4 Day Week Global study in the UK in which 61 companies experimented with a four-day workweek, about what this transformation could look like.

What does the congressional legislation call for?

The Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act is quite straightforward: It calls for the reduction of the standard workweek from 40 to 32 hours, while protecting workers’ pay and benefits. This legislation would require overtime pay be time and a half on days that surpass eight hours and double an employee’s pay for days that exceed 12 hours.

How would a four-day workweek benefit workers?

Says Harty, the marketing manager of 4 Day Week Global, there are physical and mental health benefits for workers when they transition to a four-day workweek. “You see mental health improving,” Harty tells Teen Vogue. “People are less anxious. They have less work stress. They have less burnout as well — that’s a really big one.” In 4 Day Week Global’s trials, Harty continues, they usually see significant declines in these three mental health-related areas, and have found that people exercise and sleep more, improving their physical health as well.

Adding an extra day to the weekend gives people more time for themselves, Harty notes, and allows for social improvements she believes could come from a four-day workweek, a particularly resonant point given that the US surgeon general has declared an “epidemic of loneliness” in this country. “We often find that people spend a lot of time outdoors and they spend a lot of time with other people,” Harty says. “So it’s really, really good for them, but also really good for society.”

Additionally, Harty says, a four-day workweek has positive environmental impacts. “If we are going in to work one day less, we are using less electricity, less fuel,” she explains. “And if there are less people going in [to the office], there’s going to be less traffic…. It’s almost cumulative, in terms of the impact.”

How could this legislation impact workers across industries?

Schor, the Boston College economist and sociologist, says via email that the 32-hour workweek is viable in all sectors: “Retail tends to have a lot of part-time workers, so fewer would be eligible, but it might lead to better schedules for part-timers who are currently subjected to unpredictable scheduling and low wages.”

Also, Schor explains, her research has found the 32-hour workweek works well for small businesses and she has seen success stories for restaurants and in other service industries. Manufacturing desperately needs work time reduction, she asserts, noting that many employees in this sector are on 12-hour shifts. “Historically, manufacturing led the way to shorter hours in the US,” she says. “And, of course, it is such a productive sector — it can afford to reduce hours.”

How does this connect to AI?

“Technology has exploded and AI is going to rapidly, exponentially increase productivity,” Sen. Sanders tells Teen Vogue. “So the question we’re asking…is, ‘Who is going to benefit from that increased productivity?’ If you’re a writer or you’re working in a factory and there is increased productivity, should all of the benefits simply go to the people who own the technology, the large corporations who utilize the technology? The answer, obviously, is no. We want to see workers benefit, ordinary people benefit.”

Sanders argues that one of the best ways to achieve an economically equitable benefit from the increased productivity likely to stem from AI is by lowering the workweek to 32 hours without workers having to sacrifice any of their pay.

Why are young people drawn to this idea?

A new survey from CNBC/Generation Lab of more than 1,000 people age 18-34 found that 81% of respondents believe a four-day workweek would increase productivity at their company. Beyond productivity, Sanders says, this is also an issue of improving economic conditions for younger generations.

“I think this is very popular with young people for a couple of reasons,” the senator says. “Despite all of the increase in technology that we have seen in recent years, young people today — everything being equal, unless we change it — will have a lower standard of living than their parents.” Many young people can’t afford to get their own apartment or home, Sanders explains, and they are making decisions to delay marriage or have kids because they are “swamped with student debt.”

Sen. Sanders continues, “The wages that they’re earning are less than what their parents made, in inflation accounts per dollar, so they’re looking at an economy that is working very well for the 1% but not well for their generation. And they’re upset about it — and they’re looking at AI coming along, which would make the economy even rougher for them. They say, ‘Hey, we want a fair shake.’ And one of the fair shakes is that we reduce the workweek with full pay.”

Why would employers agree to this?

The benefits of a four-day workweek extend beyond workers to also include employers. For example, Harty says, a pilot program 4 Day Week Global did in Brazil saw a four-day workweek result in 49% of participants saying they had an improved relationship with leadership.

By giving people a better quality of life, Harty argues, employers will get better quality work: “We can give people more time to come back refreshed. They can do better work. They’re going to be more productive.”

Harty says further that the four-day workweek is an excellent recruitment and retention tool, and thus cuts down on recruitment, hiring, and training costs. “Sick leave and absenteeism majorly drop,” she notes, pointing to her organization’s trial in the UK where there was a 65% decrease in sick leave across all the companies; one company even had no sick leave during the trial period.

What are arguments against the 32-hour workweek?

Polling data on the 32-hour workweek has been mixed. A 2022 Gallup survey found people who worked four-day workweeks reported higher rates of burnout, though less active disengagement, compared with those who work five days per week, who had higher engagement and lower burnout.

These results came two years after a similar Gallup survey found that respondents who had four-day workweeks professed significantly higher overall well-being than those with five-day workweeks. With the 2022 survey, Gallup noted the gap between the two groups had closed.

In March, during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing about Sanders’ legislation, Liberty Vittert, a statistics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, expressed reservations. “There is no statistical evidence to merit a nationwide mandate of a 32-hour workweek,” Vittert said. “If it works for some companies in some sectors, that is great, but it cannot be applied to all sectors.”

During that same hearing, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said the legislation would hurt small businesses such as mom and pop restaurants that are not benefitting from AI and would still need to pay workers the same amount for fewer hours worked.

Schor, who testified at the hearing in support of the legislation, pushed back against Cassidy’s analysis, calling it “odd.” “Small businesses are the ones adopting four-day weeks most commonly,” Schor tells Teen Vogue. “Fewer big ones have made this transition. What we’re seeing in our research is that this works extremely well for small businesses.”

How realistic is this for the United States?

“I think the United States is probably one of the places where it’s going to be one of the most difficult, because it’s probably one of the biggest culture shifts that has to happen,” Harty says. “Everyone knows about American work culture and, you know, how toxic it can be. But I do think that there has definitely been a massive shift in the way we view work since the pandemic. We realized that we could do things from home. We didn’t — we don’t have to go into the office. And I think the next thing that is to come from that is a reduction in work time.”

Some US companies like Kickstarter currently have a four-day workweek, while others, like Shake Shack, have experimented with them in the past.

Sanders says people nationwide are receptive to the idea, but there needs to be an expansion of the movement for economic justice. “To the degree that we can develop a political movement in this country which says we want the benefits of AI to go to workers and not to the 1%, that’s the day we make this happen,” he explains. “And I would also say, very importantly, that this is not a radical idea. The polling shows it is very, very popular among the American people.”

How can people get involved in this movement?

There is a free guide on the 4 Day Week Global website called How to Convince Your Boss to Trial a Four Day Work Week, which Harty suggests people check out. “Step one is to basically start reading the research, get the figures ready so that you’re armed with the knowledge to prove not only does this benefit employees but it’ll benefit employers as well,” she explains. “I think one of the biggest things with convincing your boss is to tell them, ‘Look, you’re not going to lose money. You’re not going to lose people. You’re not going to lose productivity. You’re actually going to gain in all of these areas.'”

Sanders notes that change does not happen unless people get involved in the political process. “What we are talking about now is a political issue,” he says. “And people have got to stand up and fight for justice, and this is part of the justice fight. Who benefits from an exploding technology which makes workers more productive? Is it the people on top or is it working people? It’s as simple as all that. And I hope people get involved in that struggle.”