Johnstown, Pa — Pennsylvania lawmakers drafted a bill that could implement a four day work week.

6 News spoke to State Representative Joshua Siegel of the 22nd legislative district who says this bill would be a tax credit based incentive, but on top of that it is pro family, pro community and pro Commonwealth.

“A number of states are beginning to sort of experiment and explore with the idea of a four-day work week,” said Representative Siegel.

Siegel is just one of the Pennsylvania lawmakers looking to bring a four day work week to the Commonwealth.

“Especially post pandemic, more and more employees are demanding bigger flexibility and better work home balance," Siegel added. "We saw that with work from home and now we’ve seen it with employees demanding, you know less working hours.”

Siegel tells Channel 6 he and other lawmakers were also influenced with this idea from a study done in the U.K. where 90 companies piloted a four day work week.

“And the results were phenomenal," said Siegel. "Companies saw their profits either stay the same or go up, businesses were more likely to retain employees, employee moral went up, productivity increased.”

Siegel says he is humbled by the support the bill has already received, but like anything the bill has also faced some obstacles.

“What will the, you know, long term affects be, what are the costs associated with implemented it; obviously businesses may need to, you know, hire additional staff to make they can balance their staffing to give everyone a four day work week," said Siegel. "They might need additional administrative people.

But still Siegel says this bill would benefit a lot of different employees and businesses – such as teachers as the idea to bring four day school week to P.A. remains in discussion.

"Again, I think across the board, you know I also think of a four-day school week could probably help with teacher retention, reduce some teacher burn out," added Siegel. "Again, the reason behind shortening the work week regardless of the industry or sector it’s in is to make sure that workers feel like they are more than their job. That's really what this bill about, is about. Its pro family, you know its pro community, its pro Commonwealth, it’s about making sure that folks have time to focus on things that really matter.”

Representative Siegel tells 6 News the next step is to introduce this bill to the committee in hopes it could be brought up for discussion in this year’s budget season.

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