What Would Be the Advantages and Disadvantages of Reducing the Working Week to 35 Hours With Respect to Employment?
Unemployment is a serious problem facing developed nations today. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of reducing the working week to 35 hours with respect to employment?
In recent times, the global economy has been in doldrums creating unemployment and uncertainty in the all branches of industrial world. One of the proposals raised by economists to improve the current state of this status quo was to reduce the working week to 35 hours. I believe this proposal has its advantages and disadvantages, and I set these out below.
First of all, reducing the hours of the working week may contribute to the rise in employment but would also reduce the number of employee's long shifts, which means that working conditions would be significantly improved. This move would definitely heal the national economy which means that more people would have money to spend. Furthermore, this change would create additional demand for goods and services.
On the other hand, however, reducing the number of hours for employees means that they would get a pay cut in their salaries and would have to keep a closer eye on their expenditure. Additionally, if a company had to employed more workers, then its wage bill would increase which could have the direct impact on the price of its products which may lead to a drop in company's competitiveness on a market. That means fewer orders from customers followed by potential financial difficulties, or even worse, closure of a company.
To sum up, this is a very complex issue and although for some it may sound as a good idea, in my opinion we should stick with current working hours scheme and continue to look for other ways to rectify our economic problems.
In recent times, the global economy has been in doldrums creating unemployment and uncertainty in the all branches of industrial world. One of the proposals raised by economists to improve the current state of this status quo was to reduce the working week to 35 hours. I believe this proposal has its advantages and disadvantages, and I set these out below.
First of all, reducing the hours of the working week may contribute to the rise in employment but would also reduce the number of employee's long shifts, which means that working conditions would be significantly improved. This move would definitely heal the national economy which means that more people would have money to spend. Furthermore, this change would create additional demand for goods and services.
On the other hand, however, reducing the number of hours for employees means that they would get a pay cut in their salaries and would have to keep a closer eye on their expenditure. Additionally, if a company had to employed more workers, then its wage bill would increase which could have the direct impact on the price of its products which may lead to a drop in company's competitiveness on a market. That means fewer orders from customers followed by potential financial difficulties, or even worse, closure of a company.
To sum up, this is a very complex issue and although for some it may sound as a good idea, in my opinion we should stick with current working hours scheme and continue to look for other ways to rectify our economic problems.