Spain: Four-day Work Week

In recent years, the trend to develop work-life balance has gained momentum in modern society, and various formulas are being considered by governments to achieve this goal. One of the most prominent is the reduction of the working week to four days instead of five.

In 2022, Order 7/2022 was published in the Diario Oficial de la Generalitat Valenciana, approving the regulatory basis of the aid programme for the establishment of incentives to reduce working hours to four days or thirty-two hours a week and to improve productivity in Valencian companies. These are not the only objectives pursued by the Generalitat Valenciana, as they aim to achieve a better work-life balance and a better impact on the environment.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism decided to launch a pilot project in May 2023 that offers financial support to small and medium-sized industrial enterprises in reducing working hours without reducing wage remuneration. The purpose is to reduce working hours while maintaining the same wage and, therefore, seeing an increase in hourly wages.

This measure is far from being implemented in Spain, but we should not rule out the possibility that the government will make further approaches to adopting this.