For years, advocates for a four-day workweek have argued that a compressed schedule could lead to more productivity and a better work-life balance — a perspective that has gained credence¹ in some countries amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has wrought² drastic changes to the way people work.

多年来，每周四天工作制的支持者们一直主张，紧凑的日程会带来更高的生产率，更好地平衡工作和生活。新冠疫情期间随着人们的工作方式发生急剧改变，这一观点在一些国家得到了信任。

Spain is about to find out firsthand whether it works. The country is poised³ to become one of the first to experiment with a 32-hour workweek, which would allow workers to spend less time at the office without any change in pay.

西班牙即将亲自体验四天工作制能否奏效。该国准备成为率先试行32小时工作周的国家之一，在这种工作制下，员工上班时间减少了，但是工资却不变。

Exactly what the pilot program will look like is unclear: An individual with the industry ministry⁴ told the Guardian⁵ that nearly every detail was still up for negotiation⁶, including how many companies will be involved and how long the experiment will last.

这一试点项目将如何开展尚不明确。工业部的一名消息人士告诉《卫报》称，几乎每个细节都有待协商，包括这个项目将有多少公司参与以及试点将持续多久。

The test run was proposed by Mas Pais, a left-wing party that has argued that longer hours don't necessarily lead to higher productivity, and it is now in talks with the government to figure out the exact details of the arrangement. According to Spanish media outlets⁷, the pilot program is intended to reduce employers' risk by having the government make up the difference in salary when workers switch to a four-day schedule.

提出这一试点项目的左翼政党“更多国家”声称，更长的工作时间并不一定会带来更高的生产率。如今该政党正在与政府商谈以确定项目的具体细节。据西班牙媒体透露，在员工转为四天工作制后，该试点项目将会通过让政府填补损失的工资成本来降低雇主风险。

The experiment is expected to cost about 50 million euros and last three years. According to the Guardian, it could begin as early as this fall.

该试点项目预计将耗资约5000万欧元（约合人民币3.9亿元），持续三年。据《卫报》报道，试点最早将于今年秋天开始。

In May, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern suggested employers should consider the switch to a four-day week "if that's something that would work for your workplace."去年五月，新西兰总理杰辛达·阿德恩建议，“如果行得通的话”，雇主应考虑改为每周四天工作制。

Large corporations like Microsoft and Shake Shack⁸ have experimented with four-day workweeks in the past, but Spain's pilot program would be much larger in scale. Mas Pais calculates that the budget should be enough to allow around 200 companies to take part. That means that anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 workers would have regular three-day weekends, according to the Guardian.

微软和Shake Shack汉堡这样的大公司过去曾尝试过四天工作制，但是西班牙的这一试点项目的规模要大得多。《卫报》报告称，据“更多国家”政党估计，预算应该足以让约200家公司参与进来。这意味着3000到6000名员工将享有固定的三天周末。

Spain was one of the first countries in western Europe to limit the workday to eight hours, but recent studies have found Spanish workers put in more hours than many of their European counterparts, with no corresponding increase in productivity.

西班牙是西欧最早将每日工作时间限制到8小时以内的国家之一，但是近期的研究发现，西班牙员工的工作时间比欧洲许多其他国家的员工都要多，而生产率却没有相应提高。

Proponents⁹ of a four-day workweek argue that allowing more people to work fewer hours could go a long way in addressing the high unemployment rates that have plagued so many countries throughout the pandemic. But many business leaders have been less than enthusiastic¹⁰ about cutting hours without cutting pay, which is where Spain's proposal to cover some of the costs comes in.

四天工作制的支持者声称，让更多人减少工作时间将十分有利于解决许多国家在疫情期间面对的高失业率问题。但是许多企业领导者不太能接受缩短工作时间却不降薪，因此西班牙才提议由政府承担部分开支。