Study shows shorter work day benefits both employer and employees

The study showed employees get sick less, have lower stress, and work harder, improving productivity.

The Swedish government funded an experiment to see if a shorter workday can increase productivity and the conclusion is that it does.

The year long project, showed that employees who worked six hour days on an eight-hour salary took half as much sick time as those in the control group. And they were 2.8 times less likely to take any time off in a two-week period.

In a UK survey six out of 10 bosses agreed that cutting hours would improve productivity.

In the 1970s, Europeans worked slightly more than Americans.  Today average American works 25 hours a week; the average Frenchman 18; the average Italian a bit more than 16 and a half and  the hardest-working Europeans–the British, put in an average of 21.5 hours.