The weekend turns 100 years old this year. It's time it got an upgrade

This year marks the official 100-year anniversary of the weekend. On 1 May 1926, Ford Motor Company in the USA became the first major employer to adopt a five-day, 40 hour working week. The weekend was officially born, but it took strong campaigns led by trade unions for this working pattern to become normalised across the world in the following decades.

At the time, the move from a six-day working week to five was dismissed by sceptics as unrealistic, too radical and too damaging to the economy. 100 years later and it has become the norm. This is worth remembering as the four-day week becomes more and more mainstream today.

New figures released this week show that more than 50 UK employers, covering over 1,400 workers, permanently adopted a four-day working week last year – with no loss of pay. These organisations – spanning every region of the country and a wide range of sectors – join more than 250 employers now accredited by the 4 Day Week Foundation, benefiting over 6,000 workers directly. The real number is likely far higher, as many firms adopt shorter weeks without formal accreditation.

Read more:

• From a new UK pilot to union backing: The four-day working week has never been closer to reality
• The world of work is changing. Will 2025 be the tipping point for the four-day working week?
• Working from home isn’t ‘proper work’, ex-Asda boss says. Is flexible work really destroying Britain?

On one level, these numbers are modest. On another, they represent something historically significant: the steady erosion of a working time model designed for steam engines, assembly lines and male breadwinners. Just as the weekend emerged from the social and technological upheavals of the early 20th century, the four-day week is a response to the realities of work in the 21st.

The original shift to a 40-hour week was driven by a simple insight: beyond a certain point, longer hours did not produce better outcomes. Henry Ford famously introduced a five-day week not out of altruism, but because it worked.

A century later, the same logic applies – albeit in a very different economy. Evidence from numerous four-day week trials have repeatedly shown what common sense suggests: in simple terms when people have more time to rest, care and live, they tend to work better. Output is maintained or improved, staff turnover falls, and sick days decline. For employers, this translates into lower recruitment costs and better staff morale. For workers, it means more free time – the scarcest resource of all.

Crucially, the four-day week movement is not confined to tech firms or trendy start-ups. The latest cohort of UK employers includes manufacturers, charities, professional services and frontline organisations. The wide range of sectors embracing the four-day week is important – the weekend only became universal once it spread beyond a handful of progressive employers into the economic mainstream. The same pattern is now emerging again.

Of course, shorter working weeks are not a silver bullet. Not every role can be reorganised overnight, and implementation matters. Employers considering the switch should reach out to our expert team. But history shows that working time reductions have always required imagination, negotiation and transition. The question is not whether change is effortless, but whether it is worthwhile.

One hundred years after the weekend, the four-day week represents the next logical step. Productivity has soared since the 1920s, yet our working hours have barely changed. AI should be there to help us.

We’re long overdue an update.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

Change a vendor’s life this winter.

Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week – and always take the magazine. It’s how vendors earn with dignity and how we fund our work to end poverty.

You can also support online with a vendor support kit or a magazine subscription. Thank you for standing with Big Issue vendors.