4-day work week test run proposed in Massachusetts
BOSTON - There is now an official push to try out four-day work weeks here in Massachusetts.
State reps. Josh Cutler, of Pembroke, and Dylan Fernandes, of Falmouth, have filed legislation proposing a two-year pilot program.
Participating businesses would get a tax credit for moving employees to four-day schedules, as long as they don't decrease pay or benefits.
Research has shown that shorter work weeks increase performance and cut down on burnout. The lawmakers are working with Boston College sociology professor Juliet Schor, who recently helped conduct a six-month trial on four-day work weeks involving dozens of companies in the United Kingdom.
"We were able to reach out to all of the companies, and there are 61 of them, and they are not going back to the five-day week. So that's pretty exciting," Schor told WBZ-TV in February.
