This article examines various economic and sociopolitical perspectives on reducing working hours in the current context. Six main approaches are analysed: the income-leisure choice of neoclassical economics, the distributive conflict of Marxist political economy, the optimization of production processes, the centrality of reproductive work in feminist economics, ecological considerations, and post-work theories. The article shows how these perspectives, often complementary but sometimes contradictory, offer a complex and multifaceted view of the issue. It concludes that the confluence of factors such as technological changes, environmental concerns and new conceptions of work is driving a renewed debate about reducing working hours, posing challenges and opportunities for transforming work organization in contemporary society.

The evolution of the duration of the workday is one of the determinants of the contribution of the work factor to the growth of the economy’s product. The proposal to reduce the workday without modifying the salary in a context of digitization of the economy, increased productivity, and the need to improve work-life balance has raised great interest in analysing the evolution that working hours in Spain have followed, as well as the prospects that, in the future, the moderately decreasing tendency that this variable has shown over the last four decades will continue.

The reduction in average² working hours in Spain between 1987 and 2023 (from 37 to 30.9 hours per week) reflects a set of structural changes in the economy during that period, such as the increasing importance of the services sector and the rise in part-time employment. The pandemic intensified the decrease in the average workday, although it subsequently recovered before resuming a trend of gradual decline. On average, workdays are now one hour less than before the pandemic, although there are differences between sectors. Looking ahead, factors such as demographic aging, the growing significance of services, and the tendency to increase the rate of part-time work suggest that the downward trend in working hours could be prolonged.