An overwhelming 95% of employers polled by the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) indicated that they will not implement a four-day work week1 across their organisation.
2 SNEF ran a poll from 30 September to 7 October 2024, to find out the receptiveness of employers towards implementing a four-day work week across their organisations in Singapore. Among the 330 employers who responded to the poll, nearly 8 in 10 employers said they will not and will also not be interested to implement a four-day work week across their organisation. A mere 18 employers opined that they would implement a four-day work week.
3 The top three reasons cited by employers polled, across sectors and employment sizes, that will not implement a four-day work week are: (1) Business operations do not permit a four-day work week e.g. business runs 24/7 (2) Unable to increase productivity to offset reduction in capacity and (3) Higher costs due to additional manpower needed to plug the gaps.
4 “These results reflect the realities many employers face in today’s tight labour market and competitive business environment,” said Mr Sim Gim Guan, Executive Director at SNEF. “While a small proportion of employers are in favour of implementing a four-day work week in their organisation, our findings indicate that for most employers, the operational feasibility and economic implications make it a challenging proposition to meet their business needs.”
5 Among the small number of employers polled who indicated that they will (5%) or is interested (16%) to implement a four-day work week in their organisation, strengthening their organisation’s employee value proposition, improving employees’ wellbeing, and improving employees’ job satisfaction were their top three reasons for doing so.
6 Please refer to Annex A for more insights on the SNEF poll on employers receptiveness towards implementing a four-day work week across their organisations in Singapore.
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1 A four-day work week is defined as a schedule where employees work four days a week (i.e. 8/9 hours per day, up to 36 hours per week) instead of the traditional five days (i.e. up to 44 hours per week), while receiving the same compensation as if they are working for five days.
About Singapore National Employers Federation
The Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) is a trade union of employers. Our mission is to advance tripartism and enhance labour market flexibility to enable employers to implement responsible employment practices for sustainable growth. SNEF has a membership of more than 3,700 companies with more than 850,000 employees. For more information, please visit www.snef.org.sg.
