Spreading Work and Supporting Incomes

Abstract

Chapter 7 focuses chiefly on the project of work spreading—that is, shifting work from those with too much of it toward those with too little of it. The overall aim is to spread the benefits of both work and free time through a more equitable and healthy work-life balance across the society. Some work spreading can be accomplished by supporting workers’ own choices to work less; other work-spreading techniques will be more challenging and controversial, like those that take aim at the long-hours culture of many high-end workplaces. Work spreading needs to be coupled with income-support measures, which are briefly addressed here. But work spreading is the linchpin of mitigating the losses (in work and income) and spreading the gains (in free time) of a future in which machines gradually supplant human labor in a growing range of tasks.