Exploring the Viability of Four-Day Work Weeks in the Netherlands

Wed Feb 18 2026 16:16:41 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

As the Netherlands embraces four-day work weeks, we analyze its impact on productivity, employee happiness, and the economic sustainability of this trend.

The Dutch have successfully implemented a four-day work week, promoting work-life balance and employee satisfaction without reducing pay or hours. However, concerns are arising over long-term sustainability, as productivity growth has stagnated. Employers advocate for a cultural shift towards working smarter, but economists warn of an aging workforce and the challenges posed by part-time labor. As unions push for formalizing the four-day week and addressing gender disparities, the question remains: is this approach sustainable for the future?

The Dutch love four-day working weeks, but are they sustainable?

The Dutch have quietly adopted working just a four-day week. But what has been its impact, and can it last?

Your kids are only young once, says Gavin Arm, co-founder of Amsterdam-based small business Positivity Branding. Most people, if they're running a company, they throw themselves into it and work, work, work to try and make it. And they're probably doing it for their kids. But then they look back when they're older and go 'I missed that part of their lives', and that's awful. We don't want to be like that.

Arm is speaking to me at the firm's cosy office in the Dutch capital's lively De Pijp neighbourhood. His business, which he co-founded with colleague Bert de Wit, advises companies on their brand identity and packaging.

Arm and de Wit switched themselves and their staff to a four-day week seven years ago. Employees did not have to take a cut in salary, and nor did they have to work longer hours on the four days. Instead, their hours remain at 32-per-week, or eight-per-day. The work-life balance was at the heart of it, adds de Wit, who disagrees with the suggestion that their staff are now doing less work for the same amount of money. Instead, he puts it down to working smarter not harder.

Working a four-day week has now been common across the Netherlands for a number of years, with even the largest companies getting on board. Meanwhile, the country's biggest union, FNV, is continuing to lobby the Dutch government to make it the official recommendation. And, anyway, Dutch employees already have a legal right to request reduced hours.

But the OECD warns this strength comes with growing strains. Like most countries, the Netherlands faces an ageing population, so as more people retire fewer are in the workforce. The Dutch are rich and they work less – but the question is, how sustainable is this? says Nicolas Gonne, economist at the OECD. There's only so much you can do with few workers. What we see is the Netherlands is hitting constraints on all sides; the way to alleviate this is to expand [labour] supply.

While the Netherlands' four-day week promotes a healthy work-life balance, the necessity for increased productivity, especially as societal structures shift, remains a critical concern for the nation's economic future.