The vast majority (76%) of employees want new working time regulations for the future. And 55 percent of employees would even accept the offer to work fewer hours, even if it meant earning less. This is the surprising result of a survey conducted by the BAT Leisure Research Institute among 958 working people as part of a representative survey of 2,000 people aged 14 and over.

Only about one-fifth (22 %) of the surveyed working professionals are satisfied with the current working time regulations. However, the level of satisfaction is significantly higher among managers and senior civil servants (28 %) as well as among the self-employed and freelancers (37 %).

While 21 percent of working people want to continue working the same amount as before, they would like more flexibility in their working hours. And a slight majority (55%) would like shorter working hours in the future, even if it means earning less. That would amount to almost 14 million employees. Professor Opaschowski, the scientific director of the BAT Institute, explains: "The gain of more leisure time, more independence, and more flexibility is apparently more valuable to most employees than a higher income.".

The image of the workforce is far from uniform when it comes to the various possibilities for implementing reduced working hours. Almost one in four employees (23%) dreams of a 35-hour week. Another 22 percent even desire a 4- to 6-hour day. Significantly more working women (27%) than men (17%) support such a reduction in working hours. And finally, one in ten employees envisions a 2- to 4-day week as their "dream job." .

According to the new results of the BAT survey, fulfilling these employee wishes could set the labor market in motion.

Wording of the survey

„Many people complain that they have too little free time for themselves. If you had the opportunity today to work less and have more free time, but also to earn less, would you take advantage of it?“ (closed question, answer options provided)