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Good practice Imported

Portugal's Government-Backed Four-Day Week Pilot (2023)

Portugal · Lisbon · See the Portugal profile · See the Lisbon profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 39% 71/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A Portuguese government-backed pilot cut hours by 13.7% at over 1,000 workers across 41 companies for six months in 2023; 95% of firms rated it positive and workers' work-life-balance struggles fell from 46% to 8%, per Henley Business School's evaluation.

13.7%
Average reduction in working hours
46%
Workers struggling with work-life balance, before trial
8%
Workers struggling with work-life balance, after trial
95%
Companies assessing the experiment positively
41
Companies participating (June-December 2023)
1,000+
Workers covered (June-December 2023)
Portugal's Government-Backed Four-Day Week Pilot (2023)

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
CoLABOR, with 4 Day Week Global and Henley Business School (University of Reading)
Period
June–December 2023
Region (NUTS)
PT17
Keywords
workplace wellbeing, labour policy, private sector, SMEs

Context

Coordinated by Portugal's CoLABOR research centre with the international non-profit 4 Day Week Global and academics from Henley Business School (University of Reading) and Birkbeck, University of London, this government-backed pilot tested a reduced working-hours schedule in Portuguese companies.

Objectives

To test whether a temporary reduction in working hours, without loss of pay, improved employee wellbeing and remained viable for participating businesses.

Activities

The six-month trial ran from June to December 2023 across 41 companies and more than 1,000 workers in 10 districts, concentrated in Lisbon, Porto and Braga. Participating companies — mostly in consulting, science, technology, industry and trade — cut working time by an average 13.7%, split between a fixed day off (51% of firms) and a nine-day fortnight (49%).

Results

The independent academic evaluation, published by Henley Business School in 2024, found the share of workers struggling to manage work-life balance fell from 46% before the trial to 8% afterward, alongside drops in reported anxiety and fatigue. The Portuguese government reported that 95% of participating companies assessed the experiment positively.

Conclusions

As a fixed-term pilot rather than a legal mandate, continuation depends on individual employers choosing to keep the new schedule after the trial ended — a scale-up path still open rather than already achieved.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)
Staffing & skills
CoLABOR research team, 4 Day Week Global programme coordinators, Henley Business School and Birkbeck academic evaluators

Conditions for success

  • Self-selected companies willing to experiment with schedule changes
  • Standardised international pilot protocol (4 Day Week Global) already tested in other countries
  • Independent academic evaluation to lend credibility to results

Common failure modes

  • Self-selection bias — participating firms chose to join and skewed toward white-collar, knowledge-sector work
  • No legal mandate, so continuation is left entirely to individual employer discretion after the pilot

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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