I wonder how much impact changing employment laws to use a shorter work week would really have on productivity.
I bet the US could change regulations around the 40 hour work week to a 36 hour work week with almost no impact on productivity. Per hour productivity might even go up (if the amount of non productive hours dropped).
Of course jobs with a more direct relationship between time spent and productivity would see some reduction in the output of their full time workforce, but they could make this up with a modest amount of overtime.
I bet the US could change regulations around the 40 hour work week to a 36 hour work week with almost no impact on productivity. Per hour productivity might even go up (if the amount of non productive hours dropped).
Of course jobs with a more direct relationship between time spent and productivity would see some reduction in the output of their full time workforce, but they could make this up with a modest amount of overtime.