The archive · Public & Social · Strategic decision · 2021
Spain agrees to Más País's state-funded trial of the four-day week
Spain agrees to Más País's €50m pilot: the state pays companies to test a 32-hour week, covering 100%, then 50%, then 33% of cost over three years.
Más País · Spanish government
What it had to solve
Más País, a small leftwing Spanish party, argued that Spain works more hours than the European average yet is not among the most productive countries. After the pandemic sharpened the debate over burnout and work-life balance, it wanted companies to trial a 32-hour week — but firms alone were not going to take that risk.
How it works
In early 2021 Spain's small leftwing party Más País announced that the government had accepted its proposal to trial a four-day working week. 'It's an idea whose time has come,' said party president Iñigo Errejón, pointing at a national paradox: Spanish workers put in more hours than the European average yet the country is not among the most productive. The pandemic had made wellbeing, burnout and work-life balance the live questions of the moment.
The party's design turned ideology into an experiment with the state as risk-bearer: a three-year, €50m pilot letting firms trial reduced hours with minimal risk, with costs covered at 100% the first year, 50% the second and 33% the third, aiming at roughly 200 companies and 3,000–6,000 workers. The red lines were a genuine cut in hours and no loss of salary or jobs, and an expert panel of government, unions and business lobbies would analyse results. Tejero estimated the pilot could start in autumn 2021 — the first national initiative since France capped the working week at 35 hours in 1998.
The pitch leaned on precedent: Software Delsol, a southern Spanish firm, had become the first company in the country to implement the four-day week the year before, reporting lower absenteeism, higher productivity and happier workers. Reaction split as expected — an industry ministry source said talks were still initial, while Ricardo Mur of the CEOE business association called the idea 'madness' during Spain's worst recession since the civil war. Abroad, Joe Ryle of the 4 Day Week Campaign called it the first-ever national level pilot and urged governments worldwide to follow Spain's example.
Why it lands
- The subsidy ladder — 100%, then 50%, then 33% of cost — matched the learning curve, so the state carried the risk while companies gathered data and then stepped back.
- The red lines (real hour reduction, no salary or job loss) stopped the pilot becoming a disguised pay cut, which is what made unions and workers able to support it.
- It converted an ideological fight into an experiment: a panel of government, unions and business lobbies would judge results rather than slogans.
- A named company precedent — Software Delsol — gave the idea evidence before the policy existed, so the pilot read as a scaling question, not a leap of faith.
- The pandemic had made burnout a national conversation, so a party without a governing majority could still set the agenda with a proposal framed as 'the real debate of our times'.
What it did
The government agreed to launch the pilot, which the 4 Day Week Campaign called the first-ever national-level trial of the four-day week, and talks began with autumn 2021 floated as a start. The announcement drew international attention plus Hacker News discussion (167 points, 141 comments), and opposition from business lobby CEOE, whose leader called the idea 'madness' as Spain weathered its worst recession since the civil war.
What you can take
Move the risk to make a controversial work experiment happen: when the state underwrites the trial and ties it to real hour cuts with no pay loss, companies will test it.
Since then
At publication the pilot was still taking shape: an industry ministry source said talks were in their initial stages, with cost, scale and timing all open. The CEOE business lobby stayed hostile — its leader called the idea 'madness' as Spain reeled from its worst recession since the civil war — while campaigners treated the announcement as a precedent. Joe Ryle of the 4 Day Week Campaign described it as the first-ever national-level pilot and called on governments across the world to follow Spain's example.
Sources
- Spain to launch trial of four-day working week
- Spain to launch trial of four-day working week (Hacker News discussion)
- Software Delsol, first Spanish company to implement the four-day working week
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