How Working Time Reduction Affects Employment and Earnings

The chronically high levels of unemployment in Finland have led to an increased search for ways of reducing working time. This contribution presents various models of working time reduction including forms of voluntary working time reduction, job rotation models, sabbaticals, etc. Of particular interest also are experiments with the two-shift 6-hour model which combine shorter individual working hours with longer periods of plant operation. Such experiments have in some cases received public subsidies.

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How working time reduction affects jobs and wages

Economics Letters ◽

10.1016/j.econlet.2009.10.001 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 106 (1) ◽

pp. 61-63 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Pedro S. Raposo ◽

Jan C. van Ours

Keyword(s):

Working Time ◽

Time Reduction

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Working time reduction as the factor of solving retirement conflict

Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University Philosophy and Conflict Studies ◽

10.21638/spbu17.2020.210 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 36 (2) ◽

pp. 326-340

Author(s):

Alexander V. Zolotov ◽

◽

Mikhail V. Popov ◽

Vitaly A. Lomov ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Economic ◽

Labor Relation ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Working Time ◽

Retirement Age ◽

Russian Society ◽

Age Cohorts ◽

Time Reduction ◽

The Government ◽

The One

One of the main sources of social economic tension in Russian society became the promotion and acceptance in 2018 of the bill on retirement age increase initiated by the government. Conflict of the created situation expressed itself in a great number of protest meetings in the country againstpension reform. The aim of the article is to give a foundation of the effective way of solving the conflict caused by such reform. For this purpose its influence upon social economic state of labor relations sides is analyzed, the experience of retirement age increase in Germany and France is investigated, the perspective of solving the appeared conflict is defined. Dialectical method as the one which allows to discover the contradictions of the labor relation sides interests is realized. Table method of tendencies analysis in time worked dynamics in economically developed countries is used, the differentiation of workers age cohorts for the evaluation of the consequences of retirement reform is applied. It is found that the main source of retirement conflict in Russia is the degradation of workers position in connection with the growth of the time worked per working life in comparison with the cohort that retired before the reform. By the analysis of the innovate foreign experience the possibility of connection of retirement age increase, on the one hand, and the total number of hours worked per life, on the other hand, is discovered. It is shown that this possibility is the result of the regularity of the working time reduction which is inherent to the modern economy. The role of transition to the six hours working day in Russia as the effective way of solving retirement conflict without rejection of retirement age increase is revealed.

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On the studies of the regular character, factors, effects and perspectives of the working time dynamics in modern economy

POPULATION ◽

10.19181/population.2020.23.3.14 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 155-168

Author(s):

Aleksandr V. Zolotov

Keyword(s):

Labor Productivity ◽

Trade Unions ◽

Substitution Effect ◽

Working Time ◽

Factors Affecting ◽

Time Dynamics ◽

Long Run ◽

Labor Legislation ◽

The Usa ◽

Time Reduction

The article examines a significant array of the scientific works devoted to different aspects of the working time dynamics. The conclusion is made that the main measure of this dynamics is the average number of hours worked per worker. This indicator can be used for analysis of all periods of labor activity including seniority. It is stated that the research on the problem shows a long-run trend of working time reduction. The works devoted to the topic also consider other factors affecting length of work: increase of labor productivity, influence of income effect and substitution effect on individual labor supply, motivation of employers, role of trade unions and collective bargaining, labor legislation. There are presented approaches to explanation of differences in the dynamics of working time in the USA and in West Europe. It is taken into account that the working time reduction during the past decades is characterized as one of the preconditions of pension reforms. There are considered works that contain analysis of the effects caused by the changes in working time length, including their impact on workers' health, work-life balance, gender inequality, unemployment rate, labor productivity, environment, perception the life as happy. The article shows a significant interest of researchers to perspectives of the working time dynamics in the context of analysis of J. M. Keynes's prediction about switch to 3-hour shifts by 2030. It is stated that the problem of perspectives of the working time dynamics is becoming one of the key issues in discussing the concept of Universal Basic Income. The article notes the attention of researchers to experiments on the working day reduction to 6 hours.

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Challenging the working time reduction and wages trade-off: a simulation for the Spanish economy

Cambridge Journal of Economics ◽

10.1093/cje/beaa055 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Luis Cárdenas ◽

Paloma Villanueva

Keyword(s):

Wage Structure ◽

Working Time ◽

Full Time ◽

Extended Version ◽

Spanish Economy ◽

Active Population ◽

Labour Share ◽

European Working ◽

European Working Conditions Survey ◽

Time Reduction

Abstract This paper analyzes the effect of working time reduction (WTR) on the Spanish economy. Using microdata from the Economically Active Population Survey (EAPS) and the Wage Structure Survey (WSS), we estimate the changes in employment, worked hours, wages and salaries, and the labour share driven by a 5-hour reduction of the ordinary work week in full-time contracts (from 40 hours to 35 hours), without a wage reduction. According to our results, this WTR would mean the liberation of private sector hours that are equivalent to 1.2 million full-time jobs. To calculate job creation, we consider the occupations and technical conditions of production (based on the European Working Conditions Survey). Consequently, had the WTR taken place in 2017, it would have created 560 thousand jobs, thus causing the unemployment rate to fall by 2.6 p.p. Moreover, women are found to be the group most affected by this measure. As for the effect on wages, these would have increased by 3.7%, implying a labour share increase of 2.1 p.p. Finally, we study the macroeconomic effects, through an extended version of the single-equations Bhaduri–Marglin model using quarterly data from 1995Q1 until 2017Q4. Our results show that a WTR of 5 hours leads to an increase of 1.4% in GDP.

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Post-growth strategies can be more feasible than techno-fixes: Focus on working time

The Anthropocene Review ◽

10.1177/2053019618794212 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 230-236 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Miklós Antal

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Mitigation ◽

Working Time ◽

Mitigation Strategies ◽

Growth Strategies ◽

Negative Emission ◽

Solar Geoengineering ◽

Time Reduction ◽

Negative Emission Technologies ◽

Change Mitigation

For sufficiently fast climate change mitigation, strategies once considered unthinkable have to be discussed. As negative-emission technologies and solar geoengineering are risky, social and economic innovations are needed as well. Working time reduction is a completely neglected strategy that needs urgent attention in climate–economy models and policy.

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