As someone who worked a four day week for most of the last six years, I think there's a lot to like about Labour's 32 hour week proposal. But there's also some huge challenges and questions. So here's a short thread with some of these, and some thoughts on what we can do now...

First question: can we reduce hours over ten years and earn the same as now? 'Full time' workers earn £33k for 42.5 hours. Doing that in 32 hours would need real earnings to rise by 2.9% a year. And if you wanted to earn *more* in ten years' time, the avg would need to be higher.

Over last 10 yrs, real earnings have fallen a bit while productivity has risen by 1% a yr. There have been times when earnings have risen 3%+ but not many, and low prod. is a feature of nearly every developed economy. From 1% to there would be a huge task if it's possible at all.

If we got there though, the second question would be: do we *have* to work fewer hours? I would. But what if you wanted to carry on with 42 hours and take the pay rise (to £44k)? Or work 37 hours for £38k? Big issues here around culture, implementation and enforcement.

Potential benefits of fewer hours are clear: better health/wellbeing, higher participation, potential for work sharing. But it's not all good: in France, studies found higher stress, more demand and less flex for many workers. Should the state enforce, or are sector deals enough?

So, if it wasn't mandatory (yet...) then what could we do to achieve a voluntary 4-day week? I think:
1. Reform 'right to request' so it's usually a 'right to have'. Flex by default.
2. Enforce the law now - Working Time, NLW, sick pay, holidays.
3. Strengthen laws on TU recog.

And reality is, we can do all of these things now if we wanted to!
So we should def be ambitious on productivity and on pay; support higher participation; make it easier to work fewer hours; and improve/enforce the law.
Can we get to 32 hours for all, and do we want to? Not sure.