North America are also taking part in the trial with 38 companies cutting their working week down to four days.
The trial is being orchestrated by not-for-profit New Zealand advocacy group ‘4 Day Week Global’.
Australia and New Zealand’s pilot is set to launch in August of this year, with 20 companies opting to work one less day every week.
Employees participating in the trial will see no change to their wages but will in turn be required to maintain the same levels of productivity as they would in a five-day working week.
This means workers will need to put 100 percent into an 80 percent working week known as the 100:80:100 working model.
So far, companies participating in the pilot include health and well-being businesses along with communications, technology, marketing agencies, banks retail and more.
A team of researchers from Cambridge university to measure the productivity of employees to establish whether a four-day week is sustainable with results set to be released by the end of 2023.
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