The four-day working week: from managerial innovation to European policy experimentation

Purpose This article maps the four-day working week (4DWW) as a policy idea in Europe. It contributes a theoretical map of working-time perspectives, a conceptual genealogy of the 4DWW from a compressed model to a reduced-hours formulation and a comparative mapping of recent European public policy initiatives, alongside working definitions of the concept and its policy expressions. Design/methodology/approach The study combines a theoretically guided conceptual-historical review of the academic and policy literature with a comparative mapping of European 4DWW public policy initiatives, identified through three criteria: European jurisdiction, public-authority involvement and legal enactment between January 2018 and January 2024. It draws on sources from the 1940s to 2026. Findings The analysis identifies three developments. First, the 4DWW has shifted from a compressed working week associated with managerial interests to a reduced working week engaging broader economic, social and environmental concerns; this entails a recombination of managerial and social-transformative framings. Second, recent years have seen unconventional labour public policies experimenting with a 4DWW, differing in their conceptual approach, sectoral scope, financial incentives and legal pathways. Third, this malleability complicates treatment of the 4DWW as an object of academic research. Originality/value This article complements recent systematic and scoping reviews of the workplace 4DWW literature by approaching the proposition through a theoretically grounded lens from the political economy of work, by proposing working definitions that clarify its persistent ambiguity and by analysing its emergence as a public policy across Europe. It offers a conceptual baseline for further comparative research and policy evaluation.