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Comment by Johnny555 | Hacker News Reader

I don't know ANYONE who would be happier if they got a 25% pay cut except for, maybe, single hippies who want to smoke dope all day and have no responsibilities. The average person, on the other hand, and particularly those with kids, would be devastated by a 25% cut in pay.

While a 25% pay cut sounds extreme, my wife took a 20% pay cut to work a 4 day week and she's never been happier. She has more time to do the things she wants to do.

Since I spend so much time working after hours, I'm not sure it would be such a good deal for me -- I'd still tend to work even on my "day off". Good thing I enjoy my job.

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Which I think leads us to a reasonable question, perhaps appropriate for a phase 2 implementation -- did anyone ASK the nurses if they would take a 25% pay cut?

Not wanting to play Masters Of The Universe with Swedish nurses or anything, but wouldn't it be possible for Gothenburg to have two nursing homes, one with 6-hour shifts and the other with 8? Set pay on an hourly scale. Then see who goes where.

But getting to the 25% pay cut point, we should at least acknowledge that tinkering with work weeks will have repercussions, some predictable (e.g. will teachers benefit?) and some not.

I'm being at-home-dad one day a week, so I have also reduced my working hours with 20%.

In Sweden, salary over a certain amount is taxed with somewhere around 60% (not the full salary, only the part over a certain threshold). I haven't bothered looking up the exact figures but a reduction of working hours with 20% had led to an actual salary decrease around 10% due to these taxing rules.

In my view this is a damn good deal. I get a full day of and only pay 10% of my salary for it.

(I too enjoy my job a lot and work after hours but the extra day of still means I get much more relaxing weekends).

There's definitely a difference in the pay packets between skilled workers and minimum wagers. Folks on a decent salary can definitely afford to trade some money for time.

The flip side of the coin is that the better-paying jobs tend to also be more enjoyable than the scrub jobs. I love my current job as a sysadmin, and am happy to work a full week, but back when I was on phone support, I would have loved to have carved a day off if I could have lived on the remainder...

I'd happily take this trade-off: work less (in a professional, salaried position) and get paid proportionally less. I'd love to work a 24 or 32 hour work week at 20-40% less salary. I value my time more than I value money.

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