Carlos Slim’s extravagant proposal to reduce working hours

Last year, at the height of the debate about reducing working hours in Spain, the Mexican millionaire Carlos Slim spoke about it in Aviles, during the XXVIII plenary meeting of the Circulo Montevideo Foundation. The Mexican businessman agreed with both government parties on the need to reduce working hours, but with some conditions.

36 hours a week, 12 hours a day. The Mexican businessman partially agreed with PSOE and Sumar regarding the reduction of working hours, which has been in effect for more than 100 years. Slim emphasized that the technologies available to modern companies can reduce the number of hours to 36 hours per week and increase productivity through artificial intelligence and other innovations.

However, the Mexican tycoon did not agree with the distribution of this day. Carlos Slim does not advocate spreading these hours over four or five days, but rather over three days a week with a 12-hour day.

Better distribution of work among the entire population. For an entrepreneur, concentrating all his time on a few days means “working fewer days, three days, not four, not five, three, more hours, more years, and having more people will create new demand for new activities.” entertainment, sports, etc. will be important.” He said staff training must improve, with a particular focus on education for groups at risk of social exclusion: “There is a need for marginalized people to join the economy with good education, training and employment.”

Coincidences. On this issue, the millionaire agrees with some points of the project proposed for Spain, where special emphasis is placed on protecting long-term unemployed people over 45 years of age, rejected by the labor market, despite their experience. According to the National Institute of Statistics, the progressive aging of the population in Spain has led to an increase in the number of unemployed people over 45 years of age to 9.07% of the active population, and this percentage has increased as retirement age approaches, to 11.42%. persons over 60 years of age are registered.

Retirement at 75. The Mexican tycoon is particularly emphasizing his support for the active elderly population seeking to retire at 75, citing longer life expectancy, which has been gradually increasing in recent years. In the statements of the Mexican who published Economist“We live longer. It is very important that retirement is not so early,” Slim emphasized.

Correlation. Carlos Slim’s proposals are in line with the policy being pursued in many countries in Europe and the world, where the retirement age is gradually being delayed. According to the study “The Future of the Pension System: Demography, Labor Market and Reforms”, by 2050 the dependency rate (the proportion of people aged 65 years and older relative to the working-age population aged 16 to 65 years) is expected to be more than 50% in Europe and 72% in Spain due to demographic imbalance caused by an aging population.

Data Says: Working Long Hours Is Unproductive. Carlos Slim’s approach is based on two main principles: grouping the maximum number of hours into the minimum number of days to free up the employee for the remainder of the week, and delaying retirement until a very old age. However, this distribution faces a major problem: the performance penalty that both assumptions entail.

Various studies point to a direct link between day length and decreased productivity. That is, the longer the days, the less productivity due to stress, fatigue and lack of motivation. Countries with shorter working hours have the highest productivity rates, while Eastern European countries with longer working hours record levels below 60% of the European average.

Relationship between age and performance. The millionaire businessman is right when he notes that life expectancy has increased in recent years. INE data confirms that life expectancy for men was 77 years, compared to 83.6 years for women in 2004, increasing to 80.2 years for men and 85.8 years for women in 2021. However, a 2020 Bank of Spain report linked the decline in productivity to increasing age, which declines markedly after 55 years.

for a long time. Excessively delaying the retirement age will prolong this situation over time, which will only worsen over time. So, in essence, older people will go to work and not receive old-age pensions from the state budget, but this will not meet the productivity goals of companies. In addition, it must be taken into account that some jobs require good physical conditions, and an older person cannot offer this and will be excluded.

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Image | Flickr (World Travel and Tourism Council)

*A previous version of this article was published October 2023.