Articles · Labor
The 40-hour week: what the global market already practices
Reducing the working week to 40 hours is new for many Brazilian companies, but not for multinationals.
The constitutional cap will fall from the current 44 to 40 hours a week within one year and two months. To measure the real impact on operations, the best approach is to look at global market practice.
When the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT) was enacted in 1943, the limit was 48 hours. Only in 1988 did the working week fall to 44 hours. The current transition requires fast adaptation from local companies, but it is nothing new for the large global competitors: multinationals operating in Brazil already price their cost structures on the basis of 40 hours.
- United States: federal law (the Fair Labor Standards Act) sets the 40-hour weekly standard.
- Japan: the Labor Standards Act sets the same 40-hour cap.
- Germany: because collective bargaining is strong, the standard working week in practice ranges from 36 to 40 hours, although the Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz) allows up to 60 hours with compensatory time off.
While many Brazilian companies are still working out how to adapt their schedules, multinationals already operate on 40 hours without sacrificing margins. Companies need to address potential liabilities arising from the salary divisor and negotiate collective agreements early, before costly labor lawsuits arrive.
Originally published in Portuguese on Diego Amâncio Dias's LinkedIn.