State to weigh old answer to new problem

By Joe Schoenmann (contact)

Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Some 1970s thinkers pushed an idea they claimed would boost workers’ mental and fiscal well-being. It didn’t catch on then, but it’s being resurrected as a way to boost Nevada’s beleaguered bottom line.

It’s not free love. It’s the four-day workweek.

Sound too European, too hip, too flower power? Know this: Utah is doing it.

A committee appointed by Gov. Jim Gibbons to study Nevada government spending in light of the budget shortfall has proposed that the state consider a four-day workweek. The first report from the Spending and Government Efficiency Commission estimated that a four-day, 10-hour-a-day week for noncritical state employees could save the state millions of dollars.

“We will have to take a long, hard look at it to be sure that it’s logical,” said Carol Vilardo, a lobbyist for the Nevada Taxpayers Association and a member of the SAGE Commission.

Among the questions sure to be raised are how a four-day workweek affects businesses and citizens who frequently work with the state. A perpetual complaint among critics of Henderson and North Las Vegas city governments, which offer most of their employees a four-day week, is that it’s nearly impossible to get government-related business done on Fridays.

The commission might also consider whether it’s good social policy to extend another benefit to state employees that private-sector workers don’t typically enjoy. The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce is, with a series of studies, attempting to make a political issue of the disparity in pay and benefits between public- and private-sector workers.

“The four-day workweek is worth exploring as a temporary measure,” said Cara Roberts, Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman. “But only if real, substantial cost savings can be realized.”

To evaluate the proposal, the SAGE Commission will look to Utah, which adopted a four-day workweek for 17,000 employees in August. Roughly 1,000 noncritical state offices will close Fridays. Utah estimates $3 million in energy savings per year from the schedule changes, plus as much as $11 million in other employee-related savings.

The SAGE Commission figures a similar program with 15,000 state employees could save Nevada $10 million a year.

Though the Utah offices are open the same number of hours each week, experts say it costs less to keep an office open two more hours per day than to reopen it for another full day.

Workers also save from having four, instead of five, commutes a week. (Commutes, too, are quicker because workers come in earlier and leave later, bypassing the heaviest traffic.)

The benefits go beyond energy and dollars saved, according to two Utah researchers.

Ever see a happy state bureaucrat? You might now.

Rex Facer and Lori Wadsworth, professors at Brigham Young University’s Romney Institute of Public Management, released a study in June looking at city employees in Spanish Fork, Utah, which has a four-day workweek.

“They were more satisfied with their jobs, felt they had a better work/life balance, they were more satisfied with their organization,” Wadsworth said.

For a broader view, in January the researchers contacted 150 U.S. cities with similar work schedules. The results were about the same.

“They were just happier,” Wadsworth said.

Not all customers were happy with public servants’ new hours. Wadsworth said about one-third “hated it,” one-third “loved it,” and one-third were neutral.

Research also showed the schedule gives a bargaining chip to states such as Nevada, with little money for pay raises: The four-day workweek is viewed by workers as a new benefit.

That could be good news to a commission looking to pinch every penny in a tight state budget.

Joe Schoenmann can be reached at 259-4090 or at joe.schoenmann

@lasvegassun.com.