I'm sure no legal business ever set out to make their employees lives miserable (not being sarcastic there, either). But the point was that the loss of pay due

I'm sure no legal business ever set out to make their employees lives miserable (not being sarcastic there, either). But the point was that the loss of pay due to working only 4 days, vs 5 days, is not going to make any workers happy. Business paying 5 days of wages for 4 days of work is not going to make anyone happy, especially shareholders. You might make up some of the loss by cutting vacation time, but there's no extra room to make up 42 days of lost productivity. Prices will have to increase to make up for lost profits, but with less money for people to spend, this sounds like a recipe for economic disaster.