Utah state workers were the first state in the nation to switch to a four-day work week and have a three day weekend every weekend; since then Hawaii and Washington have followed suit, while West Virginia and Virginia are close behind.
In August of 2008, the state offices in Utah went to a four-day workweek with Fridays off in an attempt to save on energy costs. In a newly released report, the energy savings wasn’t as much as projected, but an unexpected savings on overtime was discovered. Utah saved $4.1 million dollars in overtime pay in the last year by switching to the four-day workweek.
State employees wanted the three day weekend, but because of the ten-hour days Monday-Thursday they weren’t up to working additional hours, so the savings was unexpected.
"They're getting what they need to get done in ten hours and going home," said Angie Welling, spokeswoman for Gov. Gary Herbert, the Associated Press reported.
"The state envisioned some energy savings, but that overtime number was not anticipated," she said Wednesday.
The state saved $502,000 in energy costs, and $200,000 on janitorial services, which totaled a savings of $4.8 million.
"He's (the Governor) still reviewing the results. He feels like we have good data on the amount of cost savings, employee satisfaction and the energy reduction. What he thinks is missing is input from the public," Welling said.
Source: The Associated Press
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