Americans are ready for a shorter workweek, the results of an exclusive Newsweek poll show. But HR and workforce experts say that such a revolution of the U.S. work schedule might not happen any time soon—if at all.

According to a survey run by Redfield & Wilton Strategies on behalf of Newsweek among a sample of 1,500 adults on March 7-8, 71 percent of Americans support the concept of a four-day workweek. Only 4 percent of respondents oppose it, while 22 percent neither support it nor oppose it. Three percent say they don't know how they feel about it.

There is a growing push to make Thursday the new Friday, but not everybody is on board. 

A six-month pilot program in the U.S. and Ireland recently concluded and shows that nine out of 10 companies that tested out a shorter week say they will not go back. Roughly 27 companies that underwent the study shrunk the work week without reducing pay for more than 900 employees. 

Researchers say the results reveal benefits to workers’ health and productivity, including lower burnout rates, stress levels, staff resignations and sick days. 

Sixty-three percent of countries around the world provide guaranteed paid parental leave for fathers, according to a report out Tuesday morning from the World Policy Analysis Center.

Why it matters: Though support is growing for paternity leave, there's still a stigma attached to men who take time off to care for their children. Yet, studies find numerous benefits for the economy, for fathers, and for their partners.

A pilot program testing a four-day work week in the United Kingdom has been hailed as a "resounding success" after employees reported improved well-being and a majority of the participating companies said they would keep the change.

A total of 61 British companies with around 2,900 workers were enrolled in the trial, with employees working an average of 34 hours across four day between June and December 2022, all while keeping their existing salary.

Dozens of British employers trialling a four-day working week have mostly decided to stick with it after a pilot hailed as a breakthrough by campaigners for better work-life balance.

Employees at 61 companies across Britain worked an average of 34 hours across four days between June and December 2022, while earning their existing salary. Of those, 56 companies, or 92%, opted to continue like that, 18 of them permanently.

Questions swirl around how some kinds of work should get done. There’s debate over on-site staff versus remote or hybrid. Then there’s the workweek. Can it drop to four days? Does that mean five days’ work in 20% less time – or giving employees some time back?

Laurent Belsie, who covers business trends for the Monitor, joined with writers Erika Page and Shafi Musaddique to explore.

“It’s not a new trend,” Laurent says of the push for a shorter week. But the pandemic accelerated it, he tells Samantha Laine Perfas,  and brought forward questions that have been brewing.

Elon Musk has proved visionary in defying conventional wisdom. When others said electric cars were the technology of the future, he made them a profitable venture in the present. When others claimed private space travel was a niche, he created an industry that looks as if it could boom in the next few years.

For Umar Para – a 22-year-old photographer from the Indian union territory of Kashmir, the world’s most militarised zone – New Delhi, the national capital, was always the land of equal opportunity when he moved to the city seeking employment, last year. At least that’s what he was led to believe through the numerous shows and movies about the promise of the Great Indian Dream he’d grown up watching.

Demonstrators across the globe seized May Day, also known as International Workers' Day, as a moment to celebrate working-class contributions as they rallied for better labor rights, immigration overhauls, and other causes around social and economic equality.

Crowds of activists marched through lower Manhattan to demand worker protections and immigration overhauls on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of people marched Sunday in cities around Europe for May Day protests to honor workers and shame governments into doing more for their citizens. In France, protesters shouted slogans against newly elected President Emmanuel Macron, a development that may set the tone for his second term.