France’s 35-hour workweek is one of the boldest progressive reforms in recent years. Drawing on existing survey and economic data, supplemented by interviews with French informants, this article examines the 35-hour week’s evolution and impacts. Although commonly dismissed as economically uncompetitive, the policy package succeeded in avoiding significant labor-cost increases for business. Most 35-hour employees cite quality-of-life improvements despite the fact that wage moderation, greater variability in schedules, and intensification of work negatively impacted some—mostly lower-paid and less-skilled—workers. Taking into account employment gains, the initiative can be considered a qualified success in meeting its main aims.
and Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling, The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).
2.
Thomas L. Friedman, “A Race to the Top,”New York Times, June 3, 2005.
3.
and Teresa Brennan, Globalization and Its Terrors: Daily Life in the West (New York: Routledge, 2003).
4.
and Susan Bell, “Paris Passes Law on 35-Hour Week,”(London) Times, May 20, 1998.
5.
See also Nyland’s discussion of nineteenth-century debates over reduction of the workday in which opponents repeatedly overestimated the economic costs of WTR policies by failing to foresee the resulting increase in hourly productivity. Chris Nyland, Reduced Worktime and the Management of Production (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
6.
Marie Valla and Eric Pape, “Off the Deep End,”Newsweek, international ed., July 19, 2004.
7.
Brian Burgoon and Phineas Baxandall, “Three Worlds of Working Time: The Partisan and Welfare Politics of Work Hours in Industrialized Countries,”Politics & Society32, no. 4 (2004): 439-473.
8.
and Greg Albo, “A World of Market Opportunities? Capitalist Obstacles and Left Economic Policy,” in Socialist Register 1997: Ruthless Criticism of All That Exists, ed. Leo Panitch (Halifax, NS: Fernwood, 1997), 5-47.
9.
Jacques Freyssinet, “Entre rupture et continuités,” in La réduction du temps de travail: Des politiques aux pratiques, ed. Catherine Bloch-London and Jérôme Pélisse (Paris: La Documentation Française, 2003), 30-32.
10.
Dominique Méda, “Les 35 heures dans l’histoire séculaire de la réduction du temps de travail,” in 35 heures: Le temps du bilan, ed. Bernhard Brunhes, Denis Clerc, Dominique Méda, and Bernard Perret (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2001), 16-17.
11.
Jean-Pierre Jallade, “Working Time Policies in France,” in Working Time in Transition: The Political Economy of Working Hours in Industrial Nations, ed. Karl Hinrichs, William Roche, and Carmen Sirianni (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991), 70-72.
12.
Ibid., 79-80.
13.
and interview with Pierre Larrouturou, Paris, June 9, 1998.
14.
Guy Aznar, “Réduction du temps de travail: la loi Robien,”Futuribles217 (1997): 15-28.
15.
Gilbert Cette, Nicolas Dromel, and Dominique Méda, “Les déterminants du jugement des salariés sur la RTT,”Économie et Statistique376-77 (2005): 119-119.
16.
and interview with four-day workweek advocate Pierre Larrouturou, Paris, June 9, 1998.
17.
Martine Aubry, “Introduction de l’exposé des motifs de la première loi Aubry devant l’Assemblée nationale,” in Bloch-London and Pélisse, La réduction du temps de travail, 112.
18.
Ministère de l’emploi, du travail, et de la cohésion sociale, “Aménagement du temps de travail: Archives, Les campagnes de communication,” http://www.35h.travail.gouv.fr/publications/archives/index_archives.htm.
19.
and Jean-Louis Dayan, 35 heures, des ambitions aux réalités (Paris: La Découverte, 2002), 30-31.
20.
The fact that the employment goal was lower than the amount of WTR was based on the expectation that increased hourly productivity would absorb some of the hours reduction. “Defensive” agreements that avoided planned layoffs were also eligible for financial incentives.
21.
and Dayan, 35 heures, 63-63.
22.
Freyssinet, “Entre rupture et continuités,” 30-32.
23.
Philippe Askenazy, Catherine Bloch-London, and Muriel Roger, “La réduction du temps de travail 1997-2003: dynamique de construction des lois ‘Aubry’ et premières évaluations,”Économie et Statistique376-77 (2005): 157-157.
24.
In France’s industrial relations system, more than one labor union is frequently active in a firm. Collective agreements are often reached without all the labor unions in the firm signing on.
25.
and Christophe Forcari and Stanislas Noyer, “35 heures: L’accord qui fait réver les patrons,”Libération, August 10, 1998.
26.
Askenazy, Bloch-London, and Roger, “La réduction du temps de travail 1997-2003,” 158.
27.
The amount was set at a base level of 4,174 F (approximately US$ 668) per employee per year, with additional reductions for workers making less than 1.8 times the minimum wage, up to as much as 22,434 F (US$3,590) per year for minimum-wage workers. This represented an integration of 35-hour week financial support with the previous center-right government’s policy of promoting employment of unskilled workers by reducing payroll taxes on low-wage jobs.
28.
Interview with Labor Ministry employee, Paris, August 11, 2003.
29.
Interview with former government economist, Paris, August 11, 2003.
30.
See, for example, Martine Bulard, “What Price the 35-Hour Week?”Le Monde Diplomatique, September 1999, http://mondediplo.com/1999/09/12hours.
31.
In the year 2000 (2002 for small firms), overtime hours would attract a premium of 10 percent, with the full 25 percent premium only applied in 2001 (or 2003). Similarly, the government gave firms two additional years before all hours in excess of 35 per week would count toward the annual overtime limit of 130 hours per employee.
32.
and Caroline Monnot, “35 heures: les projets de Mme Aubry critiqués de toutes parts,”Le Monde, June 24, 1999.
33.
See, for example, Bulard, “What Price the 35-Hour Week?”
34.
and Dayan, 35 heures, 171-171.
35.
The salary top-up was chosen as an alternative to an across-the-board 11 percent rise in the minimum wage, which policy makers believed would be unmanageable for some firms still at 39 hours who had not benefited from WTR financial aid or productivity-enhancing work reorganization.
36.
Two other categories of managers were also distinguished: senior managers exempt from the law and those integrated in work teams, such as production supervisors, who were covered by the same rules as most workers.
37.
Marc-Antoine Estrade and Dominique Méda, Principaux résultats de l’enquête RTT et modes de vie (Paris: Direction de l’animation de la recherche, des études et des statistiques, 2002). One limitation of this survey is that it includes employees who moved to a 35-hour week under the conditions of the Robien and Aubry I laws, but not the Aubry II law.
38.
and DARES, “Evolution de la durée collective annuelle,” http://www.travail.gouv.fr.
39.
DARES, “Série des passages à 35 heures,” http://www.travail.gouv.fr.
40.
and Bernard Brunhes, “Un grand chantier pour les partenaires sociaux,” in Brunhes et al., 35 heures, 58.
41.
Catherine Bloch-London, Trong-Hien Pham, and Serge Zilberman. “La montée en charge des 35 heures,” in Bloch-London and Pélisse, La réduction du temps de travail, 42.
42.
Dayan, 35 heures, 170.
43.
Dominique Méda, “Travailler moins pour vivre mieux?” in Brunhes et al., 35 heures, 101.
44.
Also see, for example, Andrew Borowiec, “35-Hour Workweek Failing to Deliver,”Washington Times, July 22, 2004.
45.
and Michel Husson, “Réduction du temps de travail et emploi: une nouvelle évaluation,”Revue de l’IRES38, no. 1 (2002): 4-4.
46.
Husson, “Réduction du temps de travail et emploi,” 4, 27.
47.
Pierre-Olivier Beffy and Nathalie Fourcade, “Le ralentissement de la productivité du travail au cours des années 1990: l’impact des politiques d’emploi,”Économie et Statistique376-77 (2005): 3-23.
48.
Camille Logeay and Sven Schreiber, “Testing the Effectiveness of the French Work-Sharing Reform: A Forecasting Approach,”Applied Economics38 (2006): 2053-2068.
49.
Logeay and Schreiber also reject the following possible explanations of falling unemployment: slower growth of labor supply (which actually grew at normal rates, if not faster), the effects of active labor market policy (whose coverage actually declined during this period), macroeconomic stimulus through an expansionary fiscal policy (budget deficits were actually reduced compared to 1998-1999), and the introduction of the euro (which advocates never claimed would cut unemployment on its own). Ibid., 2055, 2066.
50.
and Jennifer Hunt, “Has Work-Sharing Worked in Germany?”Quarterly Journal of Economics114, no. 1 (1999): 117-148.
51.
See, for example, Denis Gautier-Sauvagnac, “Ruineuses 35 heures,”Le Monde, October 14, 2003.
52.
Martine Aubry, “35 heures: le coup de grace,”Le Monde, February 3, 2005.
53.
Alain Gubian, Stéphane Jugnot, Frédéric Lerais, and Vladimir Passeron, “Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi: des simulations ex ante aux évaluations ex post,”Économie et Statistique376-77 (2005), 47-49.
54.
and Muriel Gremillet, “Maux et merveilles de la RTT,”Libération, June 24, 2005.
55.
This econometric simulation assumed that all firms and all full-time workers experienced a 10.3 percent reduction in hours, with one third of the WTR absorbed by hourly productivity gains, assumptions that were not borne out in practice. Gubian et al., “Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi,” 32.
56.
Nyland, Reduced Worktime and the Management of Production.
57.
Virginie Malingre, “La croissance est désormais moins ‘riche en emplois’ qu’au cours de la dernière décennie,”Le Monde, March 1, 2005.
58.
Patrick Ollier and Hervé Novelli, Rapport d’information par la mission d’information commune sur l’evaluation des consequences economiques et sociales de la legislation sur le temps de travail, April 14 (Paris: National Assembly, 2004), 114-15.
59.
Gubian et al., “Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi,” 51.
60.
Ibid., 52.
61.
Gilbert Cette argues that WTR is a way of reducing cyclical unemployment, but if it does not change unit labor costs, it does not affect the long-term equilibrium unemployment rate. However, it does generate an earlier reduction of unemployment than would occur without WTR, which has beneficial social and economic effects. See Ollier and Novelli, Rapport d’information, 117.
62.
See also Stephen Nickell, “Unemployment and Labor Market Rigidities: Europe versus North America,”Journal of Economic Perspectives11, no. 3 (1997): 55-74.
63.
Hien Pham, “Les modalités de passage à 35 heures en 2000,”Premières Informations et Premières Synthèses6, no. 3 (2002): 7-8.
64.
Jérôme Pélisse, “À la recherché du temps inégalement gagné,” in Bloch-London and Pélisse, La réduction du temps de travail, 72-75.
65.
Ibid., 73.
66.
and Méda, “Travailler moins pour vivre mieux?” 103.
67.
David Woodruff, “French Election Result May Hinge on Voter Opinion of Workweek,”Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2002.
68.
Dayan, 35 heures, 128-128.
69.
Based on data from RTT et Modes de Vie survey by DARES. Marc Antoine Estrade and Valérie Ulrich, “Une fragilisation des moins qualifiés,” in Bloch-London and Pélisse, La réduction du temps de travail, 70.
70.
Pélisse, “À la recherché du temps inégalement gagné,” 73.
71.
Ibid., 74.
72.
Cédric Afsa and Pierre Biscourp, “L’évolution des rythmes de travail entre 1995 et 2001: quel impact des 35 heures?”Économie et Statistique376-77 (2005): 173-213.
73.
Pham, “Les modalités de passage à 35 heures en 2000,” 7-8.
74.
Méda, “Travailler moins pour vivre mieux?” 105-6.
75.
and “Involuntary Part-Time Work Declines,”European Industrial Relations Observatory On-line, November 2001, http://www.eiro.eurofound.eu.int.
76.
and Government of France, “La réduction négociée du temps de travail,” 7.1.
77.
Pham, “Les modalités de passage à 35 heures en 2000,” 6-7.
78.
Méda, “Travailler moins pour vivre mieux?” 87-89.
79.
Gubian et al., “Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi,” 32.
80.
Bruno Crépon, Marie Leclair, and Sébastien Roux, “RTT, productivité et emploi: nouvelles estimations sur données d’entreprises,”Économie et Statistique376-77 (2005): 55-89, 55-55, 78-78.
81.
and Eric Heyer (interview), “L’assouplissement des 35 heures devrait rester marginal,”Le Journal du Management, March 30, 2005.
82.
France’s unit labor cost index fell from 113.6 in 1997 to 100 in 2000 (the base year) to 98.8 in 2002. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD Economic Outlook, no. 78 (Paris: OECD, 2005), Statistical Annex, table 43.
83.
For example, François Contensou and Radu Vranceanu, “Les 35 heures ou le discours sans la méthode,”Le Monde, October 10, 2003.
84.
Bulard, “What Price the 35-Hour Week?”
85.
In 2002, France received $49.0 billion in FDI inflows versus $52.7 billion in China. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), World Investment Report 2005: Transnational Corporations and the Internationalization of R&D (New York: United Nations, 2005), 303-307.
86.
Interview with former government economist, Paris, August 11, 2003.
87.
and Nicolas Baverez (interview), “35 heures: une catastrophe économique et sociale,”20 minutes, October 7, 2003.
88.
Government of France, “La réduction négociée du temps de travail,” 8.1-8.2.
89.
In the RTT et Modes de Vie survey, among women at 35 hours, 93 percent say they still do most of the laundry, 86 percent most of the ironing, and 74 percent most of the meal preparation, housekeeping, and shopping. Meanwhile, 74 percent of men say they do most of the odd jobs and repairs (“le bricolage”), and 51 percent most of the gardening. Since WTR, the number of men who report doing more ironing is only 4 percent (the corresponding figure for laundry is 7 percent; meal preparation, 19 percent; housekeeping, 20 percent; and shopping, 22 percent). Roughly similar proportions of women report spending increased time on these activities. Estrade, Méda, and Orain, “Les effets de la réduction du temps de travail sur les modes de vie,” 7.
90.
Dominique Méda and Renaud Orain, “Peu de modifications dans le partage de tâches au sein des couples,” in Bloch-London and Pélisse, La réduction du temps de travail, 95.
91.
Cette, Dromel, and Méda, “Les déterminants du jugement des salariés sur la RTT,” 120.
92.
Woodruff, “French Election Result.”
93.
and Dayan, 35 heures, 135-135.
94.
Jean-Yves Boulin and Christian du Tertre, “Les évolutions des pratiques,” in Bloch-London and Pélisse, La réduction du temps de travail, 99-102.
95.
Michel Clerget, “Loisirs: La réduction du temps de travail permet une multiplication des courts séjours,”L’Humanité, March 11, 2001.
96.
and Estrade, Méda, and Orain, “Les effets de la réduction du temps de travail sur les modes de vie,” 3.
97.
and Dayan, 35 heures, 129-134.
98.
Dayan, 35 heures, 132-132.
99.
Méda, “Travailler moins pour vivre mieux?” 100.
100.
Jennifer Bué, Sylvie Hamon-Cholet, and Isabelle Puech, “Un accroisement de polyvalence,” in Bloch-London and Pélisse, La réduction du temps de travail, 59.
101.
Cette, Dromel, and Méda, “Les déterminants du jugement des salariés sur la RTT,” 130.
102.
Data based on RTT et Modes de Vie survey of Robien law and Aubry I employees, from Estrade and Méda, Principaux résultats de l’enquête RTT et modes de vie, 88.
103.
Cette, Dromel, and Méda, “Les déterminants du jugement des salariés sur la RTT,” 121.
104.
Martine Lurol and Jérôme Pélisse, “35 heures: les disparités entre hommes et femmes,”Quatre Pages48 (November 2001): 1-4.
105.
Jacobs and Gerson, The Time Divide, 115-115.
106.
Dominique Méda, “Les 35 heures, arme des femmes,”Le Monde, February 5,
107.
Although the results regarding work-family reconciliation are positive overall, this challenge may have been complicated for a minority, often less-skilled workers, who faced greater variations in hours at the whim of their employer, and who may have encountered new problems, such as finding child care in the evenings, on weekends, or on short notice. The contrast between the very high satisfaction among women with young children, and the relatively low satisfaction rate among unskilled female workers, may be due to the latter group’s more frequent subjection to more variable and unpredictable hours. Another explanation is that unskilled women with children (who are proportionately more satisfied than unskilled women without children) are underrepresented in the sample since they are less likely than other women to stay in the labor market when they have children. See Cette, Dromel, and Méda, “Les déterminants du jugement des salariés sur la RTT,” 131.
108.
Méda, “Travailler moins pour vivre mieux?” 98-99.
109.
Logistic regression allows for a control of other variables to avoid confusing direct and indirect effects, which is a potential problem with previous analyses of this survey. Confirming the point made above, the authors also concluded that women with young children were more likely than other employees to be satisfied with the 35-hour week. Cette, Dromel, and Méda, “Les déterminants du jugement des salariés sur la RTT.”
110.
For example, a poll conducted for the small business employers’ confederation (Confédération Générale des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises, or CGPME) found that 59 percent of people in France believed that the 35-hour week was good for employees, a figure that rose to 70 percent for those who actually experienced the shorter work-week themselves. Canal Ipsos, “Les 35 heures, un acquis social,” July 7, 2004, http://www.ipsos.fr/CanalIpsos/articles/1376.asp?rubId=21.
111.
and Ernest-Antoine Seillière, “Le MEDEF répond à la demande de Madame Aubry,” December 13, 1999, http://www.medef.fr.
112.
Interview, CFDT union official, Paris, August 12, 2003.
113.
Quoted in Yves Jorand, Jean-Marie Gerlin, Dominique Tonneau, François Fort, Bernard Deorflinger, Michel Pepin, and Myriame Maufroy, Les réticences à entrer dans le cadre legal des 35 heures (Paris: DARES, 2005), 11. See also 24, 53-54, and 92.
114.
Survey of 500 business leaders cited in Askenazy, Bloch-London, and Roger, “La réduction du temps de travail 1997-2003,” 158.
115.
and Carine Fouteau, “Le point de vue des grandes entreprises,” in Bloch-London and Pélisse, La réduction du temps de travail, 44.
116.
As a Labor Ministry employee said, “MEDEF hates state intervention,” while a former government economist clarified that employers want the state to intervene to get more flexibility, but reject all regulations that restrict their margin of maneuver. Interviews, Paris, August 11, 2003.
117.
Jorand et al., Les réticences à entrer dans le cadre legal des 35 heures, 92, 96.
118.
“Repères,” Le Monde, December 16, 2004.
119.
Jorand et al., Les réticences à entrer dans le cadre legal des 35 heures, 47-48, 91.
120.
and “Hollow Protests: France’s 35-Hour Week. Is It Really Dying?”The Economist, February 12, 2005.
121.
See also Michel Delberghe, “Peu d’entreprises françaises sont revenues sur les 35 heures,”Le Monde, June 30, 2004.
122.
See also Gunnar Trumbull, “France’s 35 Hour Work Week: Flexibility through Regulation,” January (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Center on the United States and France, 2001). In 2004, Carrefour did give employees who wanted more money the option of giving up six days off, but maintained the 35-hour standard.
123.
David Woodruff, “France Moves Smoothly to Shorter Workweek: Dire Predictions Fail to Materialize,”Wall Street Journal, November 9, 1998.
124.
Askenazy, Bloch-London, and Roger, “La réduction du temps de travail 1997- 2003,” 163.
125.
Hervé Nathan, “Peugeot aux 35 heures (hors pause-pipi),”Libération, January 23, 1999, 19-20.
126.
The claim that the 35-hour week contributed to the left’s defeat was rejected by a number of interviewees. For an analysis of factors contributing to the left’s defeat, see Sebastian Budgen, “The French Fiasco,”New Left Review17 (September-October 2002): 31-50.
127.
and François Wenz-Dumas, “La loi Fillon rajoute des heures et remonte le temps.”Libération, October 3, 2002.
128.
and “RTT: A savoir,”Libération, July 1, 2004.
129.
and Christèle Meilland, “Reform of 35-Hour Week Law under Way,”European Industrial Relations Observatory On-line, February 2005, http://www.eiro.eurofound.eu.int.
130.
The most common change was expanded use of time-savings accounts (79 percent of firms that made changes), followed by individual rights to choose longer hours (15 percent) and the buyback of time off (5 percent). Béatrice Taupin, “Mille entreprises ont vraiment assoupli les 35 heures,”Le Figaro, May 11, 2006.
131.
and Peggy Hollinger, “Pressure Mounts on French 35-Hour Working Week,”Financial Times, February 15, 2006, 6-6.
132.
Nathalie Brafman and Sophie Landrin, “Peu d’entreprises ont précédé Hewlett-Packard dans la remise en cause des 35 heures,”Le Monde, November 11, 2005.
133.
Peggy Hollinger, “Bosch Tests Boundary of French 35-Hour Week,”Financial Times, December 20, 2005, 6-6.
134.
Dan Ackman, “France, Bastion of Productivity,”Forbes.com, March 22, 2005.
135.
Quoted in “Bosch envoie valser les 35 heures,”Libération, December 15, 2005.
136.
Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for suggesting the “Trojan horse” interpretation.
137.
and DARES, “Durée collective hebdomadaire ACEMO depuis 1993, par secteur d’activité,” (25 September 2006).
138.
and Canal Ipsos, “Les 35 heures, un acquis social.”
139.
Gubian et al., “Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi,” 44, 46.
140.
and Askenazy, Bloch-London, and Roger, “La réduction du temps de travail 1997-2003,” 164-65.
141.
Dayan, 35 heures, 171.
142.
Interviews, Paris, July 29 and August 11, 2003.
143.
and Méda, “Travailler moins pour vivre mieux?” 126.
144.
and Michel Husson (interview), “1997-2001: la plus fabuleuse période de créations d’emplois du siècle!”Charlie Hebdo264 (June 2, 2004): http://www.legrandsoir.info/article.php3?id_article=1645.
145.
Philippe Askenazy, “Les effets emplois des 35 heures: une rapide revue critique des évaluations ex post” (2005), http://hussonet.free.fr/35asken.pdf, 7.
146.
See discussion in Gubian et al., “Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi,” 38-40.
147.
Gubian et al., “Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi,” 42.
148.
See also Matthieu Bunel, Thomas Coutrot, and Serge Zilberman, “Le passage à 35 heures vu par les employeurs,”Premières Informations et Premières Synthèses17, no. 2 (April 2002): 8-8.
149.
and Gubian et al., “Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi,” 42.
150.
Gubian et al., “Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi,” 47-49.
151.
The 350,000 job figure is based on an estimate of roughly 3 percent job gains in Aubry II firms. These firms, which went to a 35-hour week in 2000 and 2001, made commitments, on average, to create 3.8 or 3.9 percent more jobs, respectively. A 3 percent net job creation figure would thus be in line with results from other categories of firms, for which the net figure was found to be roughly three quarters of the original commitment. Also note that Crépon, Leclair, and Roux estimated a higher rate, 4.9 percent net job creation for Aubry II firms, which suggests the DARES estimates are cautious ones. See Gubian et al., “Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi,” 43, table 1.
152.
and Gubian et al., “Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi,” 43.
153.
Ollier and Novelli, Rapport d’information, 118. Gubian et al. (“Les effets de la RTT sur l’emploi,” 44, 45-46) counter that any cost increases for 39-hour firms were very small and, in any case, do not account for the gap between employment growth in 35- and 39-hour firms.
154.
Husson, “Réduction du temps de travail et emploi,” 9-10, 27. Indirect job gains may have been due to increased consumer spending and an improved government budgetary situation as unemployed workers gained jobs.
155.
Logeay and Schreiber, “Testing the Effectiveness of the French Work-Sharing Reform,” 2064, 2066.
156.
Patrick Artus and Laure Maillard, “Un essai d’analyse sans a priori des effets des 35 heures en France,” Flash (CDC IXIS Capital Markets) 276, no. 31 (October 2003): 5.
157.
Ollier and Novelli, Rapport d’information, 132 and 118.
