Most New Zealanders are in favour of a shift to a four-day working week, the latest 1News Kantar Public Poll shows.
A majority polled, 63%, said they supported the "introduction of a four-day working week for New Zealand". Only 22% of people polled opposed the notion, while 15% are unsure or refused to answer.
The idea of a four-day working week has been promoted by some businesses and organisations as a way to boost employee well-being and overall productivity.
About 50 companies in New Zealand already have a four-day work week.
But both major parties say there's no need to change the law. (Source: 1News)
According to the poll, around 70% of Kiwis aged between 18 and 49 support a four-day working week.
While it hasn't gone all the way on the idea, 1News visited Wellington fashion house Kowtow, which offers a nine-day fortnight to employees.
Kowtow's Cathy Stewart said the business hadn't noticed any downsides to giving their workers more time off.
"People are just really appreciative of the time with family, friends, being able to do their hobbies, passion projects whatever it is and still be fully paid."
Stewart said she didn't believe it had cost the business anything more as they were still meeting their targets.
One worker that 1News spoke to said the extra rest helped them be sharper in the office.
BusinessNZ spokesperson Catherine Beard said businesses had a number of considerations when looking at adopting a shorter working week.
"The challenges in a four-day work week could be that actually staff end up having a really intensive four days, so that could be stressful in and of itself," she said.
"The other challenge will be if you're a business that has to work seven days a week."
When asked, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he believed businesses could drive the change themselves if there were goodwill between bosses and employees.
"We don't actually have officially that many constraints. Even the 40-hour working week isn't as enshrined and protected as it used to be now," he said. "We would be stepping back to something much more regimented if we were to do that."
National's deputy leader Nicola Willis said she wasn't aware of any legislative barriers to the idea gaining more uptake.
"A flexible working week and, in some cases, a shorter working week will make sense for a lot of organizations and for a lot of people. It's a case-by-case-basis thing."
In the poll's findings, people who were the most likely to support the idea were Green Party supporters, people with an annual household income of more than $150,000, graduates, and Labour supporters.
Meanwhile, people more likely than average to oppose a four-day working week included men aged over 55, National Party supporters, and non-graduates.
See the full poll results and methodology here.
Between May 20 and May 24, 2023, 1002 eligible voters were polled by mobile phone (502) and online, using online panels (500). The maximum sampling error is approximately ±3.1%-points at the 95% confidence level. The data has been weighted to align with Stats NZ population counts for age, gender, region, ethnic identification and education level. The sample for mobile phones is selected by random dialling using probability sampling, and the online sample is collected using an online panel.
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