The UAE has implemented the shortened working week from 2 January 2022, in order to improve work-life balance, increase productivity and support economic recovery. The choice of the short week, from Monday to Friday at lunchtime, has currently only been adopted in the public sector, but over time it is also intended for the private sector, leading the United Arab Emirates to be one of the first nations in the world to innovate the working standard, with working hours of 38.5 hours per week. The idea of supporting the transition to a shorter working week has been gaining ground around the world for some time, also in light of the field tests carried out by some companies (most recently Atom Bank in the UK and Microsoft in Japan, in addition to the historical experiences carried out by the Icelandic government between 2015 and 2019 which involved numerous public sector workplaces where working hours were reduced from one to four hours per week without loss of salary) which benefited in terms of productivity individual, reduction of errors at work and, last but not least, increase in the psycho-physical well-being of its staff.
The reduction of working hours has a long history if we consider that it went from an average number of hours worked per week around the world of around 70 in 1800 to 60 in 1900, and then to an average of 50 in the 1990s. 50. In 2019, also thanks to the containment legislation that almost all nations have adopted, the average hours worked by employees were around 40. It cannot be overlooked that, as economists have highlighted, the trend towards reducing working hours is closely linked to the growth of the so-called "real hourly wage", i.e. the pay that a person can expect to receive considering the actual purchasing power of money. Only where the real wage rises do workers tend to prefer more free time than working time. This explains the slowdown in the rate of decrease in hours worked since 2009 in most of the world's economies: due, at least in part, to the stagnation of the growth of real earnings also due to the global financial crisis which exploded in those years and whose effects have still persistent. Precisely to avoid "stagnation", the challenge of the United Arab Emirates finds its strong point in an economic axiom according to which if a lower number of hours helps to increase productivity and therefore wage growth, the increase in productivity will initially contribute to “finance” the shorter working week. In the long term, therefore, following the increase in productivity with fewer hours of work needed to produce the same quantity of economic output, real wage levels will also increase. Higher real wages will allow workers to increase levels of public consumption, enjoy more leisure time and potentially invest more in health, education and general well-being.
