Four-day workweek in Europe: experiments, results, and national challenges at..

Thursday, Nov 20, 2025

Europe shows varied approaches to a four-day work week, contrasting Italy’s debate with ongoing trials in Germany and elsewhere.

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[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

While Italy is reopening discussions about a four-day work week at the same salary, Europe presents a fragmented landscape with advanced experiments in Iceland and Germany, gradual approaches in the North, and new pilots in the East. Although the theory suggests fewer days with the same pay while maintaining productivity through better organization, practical application shows a varied mosaic of cautious progress, halted attempts, or established evaluations of costs and benefits. Germany is highlighted as one of the most significant cases in the European Union regarding the testing of reduced working hours.


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