Reducing working hours with a reduction in salary – dream or nightmare? For most companies, this model is not an option.
According to an Ifo survey, eleven percent of German companies offer a four-day week. But that comes at a price: in these companies, more than half of the employees forego part of their salary in order to work a four-day week. A further 39 percent work their full weekly hours in four days instead of the previous five, the economic researchers announced on Friday. Only 10 percent can reduce their working hours while still receiving full pay.
For more than two thirds of the companies surveyed, a four-day week is simply not possible or not an issue. “Many HR managers expect a reduced working time to result in a greater need for employees,” said Ifo specialist Diana Schaller in Munich. 61 percent of the companies surveyed believe that a four-day week will put them even more at risk of a shortage of skilled workers, 52 percent see the additional organizational effort as an obstacle, and 40 percent expect a loss of income for the entire economy. The Ifo Institute surveyed more than 600 HR managers at companies in Germany on behalf of the HR service provider Randstad.
Source: Stern
