Could a four-day work week solve Canada’s stagnating fertility rate? Here’s what the experts say

“We will continue to review work styles flexibly to ensure that women do not have to sacrifice their careers due to life events such as childbirth or child-rearing,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said in a policy speech on Dec. 4, according to the Japan Times. It’s a solution to Japan’s demographic crisis, with a shrinking population and one of the lowest fertility rates in the world — a problem that Canada isn’t far from having to deal with itself.

If Canada wants to tackle its low fertility rate, a four-day work week could help, but experts say it will only be a Band-Aid solution as young people continue to struggle with the high cost of living.

Could Canada get a four-day work week?

Several Ontario companies already implement four-day work weeks, John Trougakos, a professor of organizational behaviour at U of T, explained.

Trougakos, however, is careful to differentiate between compressed work weeks — that is ten-hour days in four days — versus four work days without any reduced pay.

Modern trials have shown that four-day work weeks force workers to “find efficiencies in the way (they) work,” leveraging technology to help them work, Trougakos added. 

A 2023 study that piloted four-day work weeks, which included nine Canadian organizations and 32 U.S. companies, found nearly seven in 10 employees reported less burnout after shifting to a four-day work week. As well, self-reported mental and physical health scores improved by 17 and 12 per cent, respectively, a year into a four-day work week compared to before the change. All participating organizations indicated they plan to maintain the reduced work schedule beyond the study period.

“The adage of working longer hours, harder hours leads to more productivity has been disproven time and again. When it comes to actual data, people end up working less effectively, less efficiently,” he explained. “They make more mistakes, they get higher levels of burnout, lower levels of job satisfaction.”

Four-day work weeks can likely work in any industry in Canada, Trougakos said, and is actively being undertaken by companies, but it all comes down to implementation. “You’re restructuring the way you’re working from an organizational perspective to make this happen,” he said.

And the benefits can be life-changing for workers. Trials have shown a reduction in employee stress and an improvement in work-life balance, less sick leave, less absenteeism and reduced levels of turnover, Trougakos said. 

But, it’s not a cure-all for Canada’s population woes.

“I think, quite frankly, probably a bigger issue than reducing the length of our work week would be to see whether or not we can encourage men to involve themselves more in child care than they have historically,” Don Kerr, a demographer at King’s University College, explained.

Kerr points to rising housing unaffordability, the high cost of living and stagnating wages as deterrents for young people who are thinking about having kids. 

“I think all of these factors are still relevant to younger adults right now,” Kerr said.

What’s wrong with Canada’s fertility rate?

Japan’s birth rate has fallen for eight straight years, and its population is rapidly aging and shrinking as fewer families have children. Japan’s fertility rate, the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, stood at 1.2 in 2023. In Canada, that number was 1.26, down from a two-decade high of 1.7 children per woman in 2008. That places both countries at sub-replacement level, which is 2.1 children per woman, meaning each generation replaces itself from one generation to the next. 

Canada has been able to supplement its low fertility rate with immigration, though Canada has taken dramatic steps in recent months to limit the number of non-permanent residents, as sentiment towards immigrants has soured. A survey from October found that, for the first time in a quarter-century, a clear majority of Canadians believed the country had accepted too many immigrants.

But a four-day work week could be a step in the right direction, Kerr said. A better work-life balance could encourage more families to have children, which is especially important not just for young Canadians, but for those across the age spectrum, as the birth rate across ages has gone down in Canada. It could also mean lower child care costs, if parents stagger work schedules and are able to care of children on alternating days.

“It’s a bigger challenge for women to achieve that workplace balance than it is for men,” Kerr added. “And women are ultimately deciding upon whether or not they’re going to have children or not.”