The six-hour day is a schedule by which the employees or other members of an institution (which may also be, for example, a school) spend six hours contributing. This is in contrast to the widespread
eight-hour day
The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses.
An eight-hour work day has its origins in the ...
, or any other time arrangement. It has also been proposed as a better alternative to the
four-day week, another proposed way to reduce working time.
By country
Australia
In Australia, the six-hour day and
four-day week is supported by the
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and t ...
.
Finland
In 2020, the
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
Prime Minister
Sanna Marin
Sanna Mirella Marin (; born 16 November 1985) is a Finnish politician who has been serving as the Prime Minister of Finland since 2019. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP), she has been a Member of Parliament since 2015. ...
advocated for a change towards implementing a six-hour working day.
The result of a Finnish study showed positive effects.
Norway
The
Red Party (Norway)
The Red Party ( nb, Rødt; nn, Raudt; sme, Ruoksat) is a political party in Norway. It was founded in March 2007 by a merger of the Red Electoral Alliance and the Workers' Communist Party. A Marxist party, it has been described as left-w ...
has advocated for a six-hour workday.
Sweden
The 6 hour workday has been subject to reoccurring debate since the early 70's after the sociologist and politician
Alva Myrdal proposed to implement it to ''
Sveriges socialdemokratiska kvinnoförbund''. Today there is more than a few examples of companies which already have a 6 hour workday in Sweden.
Since 2002 there is a workplace with a 6 hour workday in the small town of
Mölndal
Mölndal () is the seat and administrative centre of Mölndal Municipality, located just south of Gothenburg on the west-coast of Sweden. About 40,000 of the municipality's 60,000 inhabitants live in Mölndal proper.
Geography
Mölndal is locate ...
.
Several small-scale implementations of the concept have been trialed in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
, including the private and public sectors. In
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
, an experiment with 70 nurses over 18 months found decreases in sick leave, better self-reported health as well as an increase in productivity, with a cost of 1,3 million USD. Two major parties support cutting the working hours in Sweden as of 2022. The party
Vänsterpartiet (the left party) is advocating a 6 hour working day without decreased pay.
has the goal of a 30 hour workweek.
About half of Swedes would rather have to work fewer hours rather than getting paid more, with women being more positive towards more free time.
References
Working time
Labor rights
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